Soon.....
There is the prospect of an amazing new facility that dangles like a carrot just out of reach. My elementary school is one of a kind in Cobb County. We have two campuses to house and educate all 1200 of our Springer nation. The numbers in our school zone have grown exponentially necessitating a physical split in our school. Our kindergarten and first graders are located 1.5 miles from our third through fifth graders. Other schools in the district that have experienced similar growth were split into two separate schools, each with its own staff from administration on down. Our arrangement requires that certain of our staff have to travel to and from each campus, and the staff that does not travel really don't know each other anymore. This situation will go away when we open the doors on a brand new school for the 2020-2021 school year. Until then....
Until then, our administrative team splits time at both campuses as do our counselors, our food service manager, and me! I have to start by saying this would not be remotely possible if not for the AMAZING paraprofessionals that I work with at each campus. I have one budget that I use to run two separate school library media programs. We maintain two separate Destiny catalogs (not the ideal situation but we had to), two schedules, and have resources available at one campus that are not at the other. This is a reality that has been dealt with for the past year and half (I just came to this school at the beginning of last school year knowing what I was taking on). However, my reality did not include the newest plot twist!
At the end of this year, the learning commons and the second grade classrooms at the 2-5 campus will be torn down! Yes, that's right, torn down! The rising second grade students will stay at the K-1 campus (which will have to be renamed the K-2 campus) and only third through fifth will remain at the 2-5 campus (which will have to be renamed the 3-5 campus)! Where will the learning commons be?, you might ask. The only place we can be, in two adjoining classrooms.
Between now and the end of the year, in addition to running programs that meet the needs of our staff and students, we must weed approximately 5,000 books from the 2-5 collection to get to approximately 11,000 volumes. From those, we must make a determination about which 5,000 books we will make available for circulation, as that is about all we will be able to have shelved in our new space!
It is stressful to think about, a lot to manage, but we are blessed with an amazingly supportive community that are already signing up to help. We are keeping an eye on the prize, the carrot dangles out there....one day soon....