When school employees arrived at the new elementary school Monday morning, they were faced with unpacking 8,000 boxes of books and classroom supplies that movers had brought from the old building over the weekend. But they were also greeted with a surprise from Principal Josh Myler and Associate Principal Dori Polizzi, with help from the PTO. Every teacher and staff member received an insulated lunch bag (with treats inside) and a large insulated cup that bore a full-color picture of the new school.
In addition, the PTO provided plentiful snacks and a new coffee machine with all the fixings in the teachers’ lounge, as well as a lunchtime buffet from Oscar’s Burritos.
Andy Sawyer (left) and Alexa Cavanaugh sort through equipment and supplies for the Bridges program. (Photo by Tim Clark)
Cardboard cartons and black plastic moving boxes were clumped in every classroom, piled like the rocks from some of Harvard’s tumble-down stone walls. Reenie Durgin, who teaches English language learners, was surrounded by cartons of story books, most of which had clearly been read many times. The whole reading curriculum, she explained, is built around independent reading. “These kids read hundreds of books a year,” she said, sounding a little worried as she looked at her rapidly filling shelves.
Diane Kerwin and Ruth McFarland, who are on the kitchen staff, were clearly excited about the full kitchen, even though COVID-19 precautions are forcing them to stick with bagged lunches for the rest of this year. With a food storage room and a walk-in fridge at the elementary school, supplies will no longer have to be brought over from the Bromfield School every day to feed more than 400 hungry kids.
At noon, Principal Myler came on the public address system to announce the winner of an unusual contest—for finding the oldest item that had been moved. Marybeth Quaadgras, in the school library, won hands down for discovering an 1847 schoolbook that had stayed in the school’s collection across many generations and school buildings. (It has been turned over to the Historical Society.)
Exploring the world and nature
Walking through the new elementary school is an education in itself. Heading up the ramp to the second floor, students will pass a mural that is a map of the world. It shows major natural features on every continent—the Swiss Alps, the Amazon rainforest, Mount Kilimanjaro. For each place, the map shows its distance from Harvard. At the bottom of the mural are a series of different map projections. Kids will see there are many ways of mapping the world.
On the glass panels by every classroom door is the white silhouette of something from nature—a plant, a bird, an amphibian—that is native to Harvard. Without even thinking about it, children will learn to recognize a lady slipper or a milkweed, a bullfrog or a nuthatch. Even poison ivy appears on one door, and recognizing that plant is a life skill everyone in Harvard needs.
In Rob Cullinane’s fifth-grade classroom is the fish tank in which students raise Blanding’s turtle hatchlings each year. Gradually the project is restocking nearby conservation areas with the endangered turtles.
By midafternoon Tuesday, the progress was impressive, with many of the cartons emptied and ready to be taken away. Books were on shelves, and desks were arranged, almost ready for students to arrive on Wednesday. Superintendent Linda Dwight said one current fifth-grade student had looked admiringly around the new building and told her, “I want to go back to first grade!”
