Junior High Called "A Dream Come True"

By Phyllis Coulter
pcoulter@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON - A dream come true is how staff describe the "new" Bloomington Junior High School.

Some students see the changes as a relief because it means more modern classrooms, and few late-night practices in a single gym.

School nurse Cathy Rinehart said she had to force herself not to pirouette around the new health clinic that is four times larger than her former "cubby". On an average day, 65 to 85 students entered the small nurse's room.

"I can work meaningfully in a space like this," said Rinehart, who was among the staff members at the junior high last week preparing for the first day of school on Thursday.

Another was math teacher Kim Hall, whose classroom is one of the 10 new "smart" classrooms that ramp up the available technology to allow teachers to focus on all students' learning styles.

"We have kids who won't raise their hands," she said, but they are the first to volunteer to write on the smart board, she said. "It's a dream come true," said Hall, who has been teaching wit this technology for about three years.

The technology makes it possible for lessons to be recorded on CD and used by students who are absent, she said. "They don't miss a beat."

Hall and math teacher JoLynn Plato trained staff on the new technology last week.

The additional 10 classrooms also will solve a chronic space crunch that was evident almost from the beginning. The project budget was a major concern for the school board in 1990 when it planned the $13 million school. In fact, about $1 million was cut when an entire wing was dropped from the plan.

"They built what they could afford then," said District 87 Superintendent Bob Nielsen, adding the plan all along was to expand when resources became available.

"We have used every single space in this building," said Principal Sue Silvey, noting the addition will eliminate the need for portable rooms, "in-the-hall" and "on-the-cart-teachers," said Silvey. Resource teachers especially have had to be mobile; now they have fully-equipped classrooms.

What the improved facilities mean to Lauren Winkeler is more sleep.

The 13-year-old volleyball player, along with other student athletes, got through last year using only one gym and will be glad the new one will open this fall when the floor is ready.

Last year, volleyball and basketball teams had to negotiate practice time. Sometimes they didn't start practice until 8 p.m. and got home at 10 p.m. with homework still to do.

"Oh man, that was rough," she said.

The new gym, dressed in purple and gold and including new locker rooms, could be used to host junior high championships for sports such as basketball, volleyball and wrestling.

Her father, Kevin Winkeler, is one of the parents who helped create a new, athletic booster club for the school. Among other things, the boosters will man the new expanded concession area that will help raise needed money for athletics, he said.

After a tour of the school, Winkeler was impressed with the cutting-edge technology.

Recently, his fourth-grade son, Matt, helped remind him of how much things have changed in the classroom when he asked, "What is that?"

The youngster was looking at a typewriter.