New name, new school as Waynedale opens its doors
The new art room of Waynedale High art teacher Ronda Shultzman, a graduate of Waynedale whose young sons will be at the other end of the building with the elementary-age students.
Inside any school building, things are going to fall pretty much the same way. Nouns are still nouns, verbs are still verbs and 2+2 still equals 4.
Yet something magical happens when fresh concrete is poured and students are surrounded by new stuff in their classrooms. Technology becomes state of the art, and education thrives.
Such is the case at the new Waynedale School, a K-12 facility that this week opened its doors to students and teachers alike.
“People are excited,” Waynedale Superintendent Jon Ritchie said. “The new technology, the things that kids are going to be able to do that you couldn’t always do before, they’re going to do better.”
The district’s new home — and new name — opened this week after a couple years of anticipation. Ritchie and others expressed their eagerness to be a one-size-fits-all operation, which is becoming the norm in many districts similar to Waynedale’s size.
Some of those districts separate the levels into multiple buildings, but single-campus formats are becoming all the rage.
“I like the idea of everything and everybody being together and working as a team,” Ritchie said. “The community was excited and I think pleased with the results. We anticipate an exciting start to the school year.”
Ritchie was speaking in the days after an open house drew a large crowd of both parents and students. Some may have been resistant to the idea because it represents a huge change and is a massive departure from the way things have been done.
Director of Operations Erich Riebe said the single-building campus just makes sense, and while it may take some getting used to, it will benefit everyone involved.
“I love the idea that everybody is here on one campus,” he said, echoing Ritchie’s thoughts, “especially for our elementary teachers. Grades seven through 12 have always been on the same campus, not in the same building, but side by side. In terms of collaboration, professional development, things like that, it’s such a huge thing for us.”
Classrooms are fitted now with Qomo boards, also known as smartboards. They will duplicate, replace or at the very least improve upon existing technologies. Their inclusion will put Waynedale on par with the best districts in the state and ahead of most, at least for a little while.
Yes, most of the teachers and students will be the same. The lessons will be the same. The routes to learning, though, will be upgraded, allowing for more efficient pathways to education.
“Of course we’re going to have better resources now,” Riebe said. “We’ve had some good things and done what we can with them. Now with the technology and the security, not that kids didn’t feel safe or their parents didn’t feel safe sending their kids to school, but they’re going to a place now where learning can be the No. 1 priority.”
Billed simply as Waynedale School, the 170,000-square-foot building will house all the district’s 1,200 or so students. The building will do the job of six schools under the old setup.
Make no mistake: The folks in the former Southeast Local School District will miss their original facilities, especially at the grade schools, which were spread throughout the former Southeast Local District.
“At first the idea of building a new school was bittersweet,” said Ronda Shultzman, a Waynedale graduate and art teacher in the district. “It was desperately needed, but the nostalgia of my kids going to the same schools I went to was pretty cool.
“Now being inside the new school and seeing how wonderful a campus school will be has eased my mind. What an incredible opportunity for our students, faculty and the community to be able to experience this huge improvement for our school district.”
Ritchie said the history of the old buildings that made the former schools will be acknowledged. That will include bits and pieces of the erstwhile facilities being incorporated into the new building.
When Shultzman said the nostalgia was cool, others might have pointed out that was about the only thing that was cool — at least in the first few weeks of a school year, when late-summer temperatures soar and classrooms could be miserable.
At the new facility, air-conditioning is a feature everyone is talking about. Ritchie and Riebe mentioned it independently as a major upgrade from the former schools, maybe the major upgrade. Riebe pointed out the irony of the first-week forecast, with highs expected to be unseasonable cool.
It won’t be like that most years, though. And nothing stifles learning more than a stifling classroom.
“Kids won’t be dreading coming in to the elementary and it’s 10 degrees hotter than it is outside,” Riebe said. “And then trying to learn in those conditions? It wasn’t conducive for that.”
While Ritchie expects a bump in the road here or there, he said those should be ironed out in a week or two. On the road, though, may be where the most potential hurdles await.
With a district that spreads over two counties and stretches nearly from Orrville to Millersburg, transporting the elementary school students is going to present challenges. The school days of the older students begin 90 minutes before the grade-schoolers start, so there are no anticipated problems there.
Where the trouble might happen is after school, with the days ending just 45 minutes from each other. Riebe said that leaves no time for bus drivers to double back and pick up the younger kids. So for the first couple days, the bus drivers ran dry runs without the elementary kids.
“That’s going to be a challenge,” Riebe said. “What we’ve told our bus drivers, ‘Take the 6-12 kids home, come back here and line up like you’re getting your elementary kids.’ That’s obviously, especially for me, high on the anxiety list. We’re all asking, ‘How is this going to work?’”