This gives parents the opportunity to chat with teachers on a regular basis and check out their children’s classrooms. Many walk their children to school each morning or drop them off by car. The school serves as a focal point for the community, parents said. The school was laid out poorly, the offices were cramped and the library lacked 21st century technology, teachers said. The Nottingham building was constructed in the early 1950s and has undergone few substantial renovations since. In January 2005, over Martin Luther King weekend, the students and teachers moved out of the Nottingham building, in the northwest corner of the county, and relocated to the Wilson site in the downtown Rosslyn. "It’s going to be a great start to a new year."īY MOST ACCOUNTS the past year was "a challenging one" for the Nottingham family, Hessler said, full of tumult and unexpected surprises. Hessler has a daughter going into third grade and twin sons entering second grade. "We drove past it and my son said ‘I can’t wait to go back,’" said Clare Hessler, vice president of the Nottingham PTA. Thus far parents and students have given the building rave reviews. Over the past two weeks, dozens of parents and students have stopped by to get a look at the new building, which includes renovated classrooms, new administrative offices, a media library center, extra playgrounds and an outdoor classroom space in a courtyard. "It’s very much a community-based school, with a supportive staff…and a new, clearly enthusiastic principal." "We are all thrilled to be back in the neighborhood," said Linda Toner, a Kindergarten teacher who has worked at the school for 12 years. With so many changes occurring at once, many teachers said there was a greater sense of excitement and eagerness among the staff than at any time in recent memory. And enrollment is expected to jump by more than 12 percent over last year. The school also has a new principal this fall - Mary Beth Pelosky, previously an assistant principal at Swanson Middle School. The changes at Nottingham go beyond bricks and mortar. That’s because Nottingham operated as a school-in-exile last year, marooned in trailers and the aging Wilson building in downtown Rosslyn, while their school underwent a $12 million makeover. Yet for Nottingham teachers this seemingly routine exercise has taken on the trappings of a joyous homecoming, akin to college students returning to campus after a year abroad. Desks and chairs are continuously arranged and rearranged, depending on the teacher’s mood or the amount of light beaming into the room. Books are unloaded from boxes onto shelves. Everyday this week, teachers at Nottingham Elementary School are going through the annual late-August ritual of preparing their classrooms for a new set of students.
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