Spring Lake Elementary dedicates new building

OCOEE — For the 2014-15 school year, students and staff at Spring Lake Elementary School had to relocate, because their old school building was torn down to make way for their new, bigger building.

A dedication including a ribbon-cutting at 9 a.m. March 10 at the new building made it official.

“The district has several schools in a list of renovations or rebuilding the schools,” Principal Nancy Pender said. “I don’t know what position we were, but 1961 was when the school was built. It needed to be updated both building-wise and construction, and the size of the building. We had several portables here, but now we’ll have an enclosed building making it safer for children and easier for students and teachers to collaborate.”

That collaboration includes Safari Montage, a program at the district level that enables teachers to quickly and easily access multiple websites and move among them, as well as comply with new state standards, Pender said.

“We’re very fortunate to have a brand new building built here … fresh and ready to have instruction,” she said. “We now have brand new technology, computers for students to use in class and computer labs.”

The number of students the new building currently supports is around 630, whereas the old building had about 100 fewer, Pender said.

“Our students are very excited about being here and very proud of it,” she said. “They love the paint job; it’s just beautiful. Every different grade level has a different color, and that is on the instructional wall, where the SmartBoard is.”

Painting was among the final steps for the new building, which officials decided to start developing plans and hiring contractors for about three years ago, Pender said.

“They started (construction) in 2013, when they started renovating the terrain, and they were very dedicated in making sure the building would be done on time, and it was,” she said. “We’re at the same spot — they have flipped us. We used to be 115 Spring Lake Circle and are now 1105 Sarah Lee Lane; that’s the front of our building now.”

Crews altered the terrain of the old building and put in a water retention area after deconstructing that building and sorting through its former parts, Pender said.

“We took possession (of the new building) around July 7 and started moving in that day,” she said. “What was unique about it is that when we moved to the building, there were four of us that went to unpack boxes and set up furniture, so everything would be in place for our teachers. The only challenge they had was learning to teach the new Florida state standards.”

Those teachers have impressed Pender by their ability to adapt to those new standards.

“They have deconstructed the standards and gone to the depth they need to for each,” she said. “We have lesson plans that are in-depth. I am very impressed with how the staff has taken a major focus of delivering the lessons to the students. The teachers have done a lot of collaborating together across the grade level, a grade level below and a grade level above. We have spent several days with professional developers giving them the new standards and have given them days to plan the next nine weeks.”

Parents also have taken well to the adjustment, attending school events such as family reading and math nights with more involvement and support, Pender said.

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].