Chaillie: New Cafeteria Is Quieter, Kids Are Settling, Testing Wraps This Week

Chaillie: New Cafeteria Is Quieter, Kids Are Settling, Testing Wraps This Week

 

 

Inman Elementary is through the bumpy part of a construction start, Principal Dr. Jane Chaillie told KCSI on Monday. The new lunchroom is working the way the staff hoped. The secure front office is in use. Fall screening in reading is done. Math finishes this week.

 

Chaillie said the year opened “a little crazy and wonky” while staff and students learned the addition. Construction is now mostly punch-list work. Air-conditioning parts arrived this week. Rain in the forecast is the holdup on getting them in.

 

The expanded cafeteria is the piece she wanted to talk about first. The old room was tight. After lunch was the noisiest stretch of the day, and classrooms felt it when kids came back overstimulated. The new room has more space and circle tables, so students sit across from each other instead of down a long line.

“We want the kids to talk and to learn how to interact with peers in unstructured time,” she said. “It has been wonderful.” After-lunch behavior is down.

The front of the building changed too. Visitors used to walk halfway down the main hallway before they reached the office. They now come into the office first. Staff badge in and out. Secretaries Brie and Lori Vanderhoof are learning the buzzer. Chaillie called the secure entry something Inman had wanted after visiting other schools.

 

Drop-off

Cars still come down Inman Drive, then pull into the parking lot to drop off. There are two points: the circle drive for upper elementary and Inman Drive for lower elementary. Chaillie said that split keeps the ages apart and moves the line. On wet mornings kids get out at the door. The sun on the corner in the morning is the one thing she cannot fix.

 

Fall screening

Inman is in its fall universal screening window for preschool through sixth grade. The building used to test in the first days back from summer. This year the window moved later. Teachers intervened first, then tested, so kids who need a jump start after the break are not measured cold.

Reading is finished. Math is this week. Results come back immediately. Teachers use them for small groups, Title services, and enrichment. Parent letters go home after the window closes.

The tests are on a computer. They adjust to the student and are not timed. Chaillie said a hard question is a good sign. “Pat yourself on the back because that means that you’re doing well.” The building screens reading and math three times a year and watches growth, including the plateaus.

 

Chaillie sent families to Bound for weather reshuffles. Cross country is at Glenwood tonight after Saturday’s meet was canceled. Tuesday is a Pink Out volleyball night. More cross country later in the week. Football senior night is at the end of the week.

“Keep showing up for these kids,” she said. “Keep believing in them.”

Town & Country Sanitation sponsored Monday’s conversation.