But by day, Ft. Montgomery Elementary is full of life
When you walk through the halls of the Fort Montgomery Elementary School in the evening, you can only get a sense of the magic that happens there. But, in COVID times, with visitors limited, it’s during those empty evening hours when the members of the HF-FMCSD Board of Education have a chance to walk through and explore the building.
They did so last Thursday evening. The only person moving around in the building was Principal Rachel Adelstein and Custodian Todd Lewis. As board members arrived, Adelstein was cleaning up in her office after the busy first two days of school, and Lewis was in a first grade classroom wiping down every single chair and desk.
Board President Anne Lawless and Vice President Faith Aprilante were on hand as were board members Aaron Falk, Gabe O’Connell, Kristen O’Dell, Ned Kopald and Gus Koutsourades. With them were Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Sheboy and Assistant Superintendents Mike McElduff and Joe Lenz.
They stopped by every classroom, and went out on the playground and marveled at how the building — again, just two days into a new school year — was filled with bright color, student art work, and evidence of a busy, productive day.
The FMES houses two pre-kindergarten classes, three kindergartens, three first grades, three second grades, and a kindergarten/first/second grade special education class.
Adelstein started the tour by showing off a wall full of photos and biographies of the faculty and staff who are in the building every day. She reminded the board members that the building has many new faces this year, and noted that they had also made an online slide show of the photos and bios and made it available it to the building’s families.
“There are a lot of us to get to know,” she said.
Adelstein talked about a summer full of “brainstorming” as the school district returned nearly 100 percent of its students this fall.
For instance, in a second grade classroom board members noticed that tables that seat two were organized into groups of two with storage bins in the middle of the two tables. She and Sheboy came up with that, she said, as a way for students to be able to work together in groups, but also meet the CDC-recommended three foot separation between bodies.
“As a bonus,” she said, “every child has a bin to store their supplies in.”
Creative ideas like that were evident throughout the building, as the teachers proved they could adapt to teaching in a pandemic. In a special education classroom, small storage baskets were zip tied under each chair to store each student’s supplies in. In a kindergarten class, a teacher made use of laundry baskets for each child to place their backpack, coat, etc in when they arrive for the day.
In another classroom there are individual ‘go bins’ for times when students need to pass time independently, like during indoor recess.
“Lots of positives came out of the pandemic,” Adelstein noted, saying that dollar stores have become teacher’s best friends for purchasing inexpensive classroom supplies.
Throughout the building COVID safety requirements are in place — there are signs everywhere reminding students — and adults — to frequently wash their hands, wear their masks and stay a little bit apart from one another. No one can get a drink from the water fountains thoughout the building but they can fill water bottles from a top bottle filler.
Other signs of the times included a brief stop at the desk where a rotation of Orange County Sheriff’s deputies spend much of their days. From their spot, they can see all the doors to the building, she noted.
There is still plenty of space for students to collaborate, or in the case of the pre-kindergartners, play together. Pre-kindergarten teacher Allie Lennon has set up a mini-living room in her class, where students can sit on toddler-size couches together to read books.
The tour got a little slowed down at one point while board members gathered around a second-floor wall display featuring art work on the topic what students were feeling the first day of school. Adelstein hurried them along to the playground, reminding them they had a board meeting to get to. They didn’t even get a chance to swing for a few minutes on the playground, but did pose for a photo in front of a large student-created (with the assistance of art teacher Rich Guiliani) mural on a brick wall.
The board has already toured O’Neill High School, and will at some point tour the Highland Falls Intermediate School.
