New schools open with "hiccups," and accolades

The floors and windows gleam with shiny newness. Texts and library books are fresh off the presses. New computers, new chairs, new overhead projectors, new lockers -- it's an entirely fresh start for students and staff at Teeland Middle and Larson Elementary schools.

But the principals of the Valley's two newest schools admit they are still working out a few kinks. Some doors like to lock themselves. The clocks get out of sync. And then there's the problem of desks and cafeteria tables -- many students are attending class and eating lunch "picnic style," sitting cross-legged or sprawled out on the floor.

"We are waiting for some more furniture," Larry Jacobson, principal of Teeland Middle, said last week. The shipment of library tables and chairs was stuck at Canadian customs for two days, had just arrived and was still in the process of being assembled last week. Other shipments of desks and cafeteria tables were reportedly on their way.

Just down Seldon Road at nearby Larson Elementary, staff and students were enduring similar challenges. While they had more in the way of furniture, they also had more in the way of hassles. Several doors had decided to lock themselves, sometimes with children and teachers on the other side. The doors had to be removed from the hinges until contractors could fix them.

Although there have been the occasional problems, principals at the two schools credit parent volunteers, experienced staff and eager students with making the first days go as smoothly as they have. Both teachers and parents have worked at the schools as late as 10 p.m., even on Saturdays, during the weeks before and after opening day.

And while some students have had to attend classes on the floor, Jacobson insists that the trials of moving into a new school are not affecting learning at Teeland Middle. The building may have lacked in some furniture, but the teachers had everything else they needed.

"They have overhead projectors, markers, textbooks . . . graduated cylinders, everything," explained Teeland assistant principal Deena Paramo.

Perhaps just as importantly, many of the teachers were also equipped with experience.

Joe Nolting, a teacher at Teeland Middle, said he helped open the Colony schools more than a decade ago.

"At Colony, we had furniture, lockers . . . We didn't have those kind of challenges," he said. But Teeland, he said, has the added advantage of a staff familiar with working together and using the middle school concept.

"We are much better prepared than we were 10 years ago," he said.

The principal agrees this is key.

"We've got a veteran staff," Jacobson said. If anything, he said, the new school environment is adding energy to the classrooms. And when some seventh-graders were asked if they liked the new school, the response was a loud, "Yeah!"

Beaming with enthusiasm for his new $20-million school, Jacobson walked through the halls and gestured toward the natural light pouring in through the windows in the ceiling and walls that emphasized the cool, silvery tones of the interior decorating.

"We're really excited about this facility for many, many reasons," the principal said.

To begin with, he said, there's the Teeland name.

"Our hope is to connect this school with the positive heritage of the Teeland family . . . the honesty, integrity and community service," Jacobson said of Walter and Vivian Teeland, the Wasilla couple for whom the school is named. He said he is planning a "Teeland Hall of Fame," in one of the glass display cases in the entry hall, where some of the Teeland family history will be displayed.

"It's kind of a spirit . . . an ambiance . . . an attitude," the principal said.

But in addition to history, the school encapsulates a great deal of the future. The checkout computers for the cafeteria allow students to charge their lunches to an account. Eventually, parents will be able to add money to these accounts from their home computers. Perhaps to the dismay of some students, the computers will also allow parents to track what their children are spending their lunch money on.

Larger overhead-projector screens, dry-erase boards instead of chalkboards, a high-tech "cafetorium" where students can both eat lunch and watch classmates perform -- are all part of Teeland.

Parent Brenda Campbell was volunteering in the library last week and said she was thrilled to be opening the boxes.

"It is exciting . . . and it is all up to date," she said.

At the neighboring $10 million Larson Elementary, everyone is equally excited about the new facilities.

Principal Karl Schleich showed off one of the school's unique features -- the classrooms are equipped with speakers in the ceilings and microphones worn by the teachers, allowing their voices to be transmitted to every corner and every small ear in the classroom. Schleich quoted research that has shown this equipment, originally designed for the hearing impaired, increases the success and focus of all students.

Like his cohort at Teeland Middle, Schleich said he dealt with some first-day hiccups, such as the logistics of where parents and school buses should drop off students. And in addition to new facilities, Larson Elementary had the added challenge of first-time parents and students at the kindergarten and first-grade level.

And there have been some disappointments for the children. The freshly sprouted grass around both schools is off limits this first year to allow it to grow.

Schleich made the best of the situation, however. Joking in front of his elementary students, he held up his fingers, wiggled them like growing grass and in a high-pitched voice asked the children to "Please don't step on me." The spontaneous puppet show quickly became a school-wide favorite, with children wiggling their fingers and talking in funny voices when they passed the principal in the hall.

"We made a little joke out of it," Schleich said with a grin.

And in the end, even with hard floors to sit on and no grass to play on, students and staff don't appear to be ready to give up their sparkling multi-million-dollar schools.

"It is amazing what Mat-Su taxpayers have built for their kids," Paramo said.