Five Danbury Schools: Shelter Rock Parents Concerned About Loss of School Space

Parents at Shelter Rock Elementary School have concerns about the growth of enrollment. Sarah Ellis, mother of a second grader at Shelter Rock said, “I am concerned they are running out of room,” but she also admitted, “I think they handled the art situation very well.”

 Due to an enrollment bubble that has effected virtually every school in the district, Shelter Rock lost their art room this year. The move upset many of the school's parents and PTO members who attended Board of Education meetings last spring and over the summer to voice their opposition.

Deputy Superintendent Bill Glass, Ed.D, said the loss of such rooms was personally troubling, as both he and his wife had been very involved in the arts when they were younger. "It's a travesty to have to give up music and art classrooms. It is unfortunate it is becoming the norm because of the need for academics.  No one is supportive of losing those rooms."

 On Wedensday, Principal Julia Horne gave a tour of the school which included a look at the reorganization of space to accommodate the art supplies. Opening a door marked Supply Closet, she explained, “We use this closet for all of the supplies, and here is the cart, and there is the teacher's desk. It's a matter of being organized. The teacher has all of her materials.”

 On the neatly arranged desk was a lesson plan book for substitutes and other folders. Brushes, colored pencils, paints and papers lined the shelves in a model of organization. Outside, a large storage trailer now holds even more materials for both art and science.

 Horne said, “We make it work. Nobody's complaining. The art on a cart is fine, and we do what we have to do. We have what we need.” Smiling, Horne said, “I see them pushing their cart and smiling...our art teacher is a winner. She may be doing art in the cafeteria. She likes to work big, and likes to be able to spread out.”

 The tour of the building showed that all of the classrooms are large enough to accommodate the number of students in each room, and every class has it's own library of hundreds of books. The school also has an expansive library and a separate media center with computers for each child in a class. In the media center's office, a cart holds laptops for the staff and classroom use.

 There is also enough room in the school for ESL and supplemental reading and math to be done in spacious rooms that serve those purposes. While other schools lack space options, at this point Horne said, “I try not to have students learning in the hall.”

To see how other Danbury schools are experiencing overcrowding and

 The music room, which now takes place on the stage, is completely outfitted and lacks only a back wall for it to look like any other classroom in the building. “They did a beautiful job,” Horne said, as she explained the ease with which she can reclaim the space as necessary. “If I need the stage, I move everything around. And if we need more open space we can always go into the gym.”

 The lack of space is not obviously apparent, as seen in the photos. The halls are open and pleasingly decorated with beige walls and carpets, and art and school work line the walls. Even hallway cubbies are neat and organized.

 The school's enrollment held steady from last year at 420. “We thought we were going to have 450 kids this year, but some went on to Interfaith, ten were sent over to our sister school at Great Plain Elementary, and some moved out of the district, so we are pretty much where we were last year,” Horne said.

 Horne has unending support from parents and staff alike. Shelter Rock parent Rick Barton said, “Julia is really awesome, very thorough. She is the iron hand in the velvet glove. The school has such a sense of order and comfort.”

 “I love this school,” mother Olga Pernas said. “Julia is tough and she keeps everything in order. She knows what she is doing. I know that my daughter will graduate from here knowing everything she needs to know. It's a small school and all the kids are treated fairly.”

 The school's custodian, John Sacrider, said, “I've been working in the system for 18 years and this has been one of the best places I've worked.”

 Having nothing but high praise for the way Horne operates the school, Sacrider admitted, “The numbers are getting higher and we are losing classroom space. For a while, numbers were dropping and now suddenly it's going back up. There is a speech room that used to be storage, and there is almost no room for storage in the school. The cafeteria seems to be used more and more.”

 “Every year we have had to add a classroom,” Amy Parkinson, a special education paraprofessional, said.

 Standing outside and pointing at the expanse of condos stretching out in every directions, Sacrider said, “When I first started here, the building was surrounded by woods.  None of these condos were here. Now we are getting a lot of kids from those condos. People used to say, Shelter Rock? All the way out there? Now it's packed with people.”

 Parent Nora Fuentes said that she has been very vocal at Board of Education meetings about the space issue. “I am concerned about the lack of transparency with the overcrowding. I go to the school board meetings and I hear them say they are working on a plan, but what are they waiting for? They say they have a plan to work on a plan, but I don't know what the plan is."

  "They paid all that money for the studies and then did nothing with them," Fuentes said. "Whether they are democrats or republicans, they have to do something. If they knew this beforehand, why was not anything done? They need to remember they work for us. No matter what their position of power, they have to answer to us.”