State-of-the-art facility spurs other changes

PORTSMOUTH

The opening of the new Simonsdale Elementary is among the big changes in the division this year, and the school itself is giving rise to welcome developments.

The building, which replaces the 1940s-era Simonsdale, is about 80,000 square-feet and more than double the size of the old Simonsdale. It will become home to that school’s students and those who would have attended Olive Branch Elementary.

“It’ll be a state-of-the art facility for learning,” Superintendent David Stuckwisch said. “It will serve those students well.”

Simonsdale’s opening ushers in another change: It allows Olive Branch to become a preschool, reducing the division’s K-12 schools to 19 from 20 but keeping its number of preschools at four.

The opening also helps to provide another educational experience for one group of children. The converted Olive Branch steps in where the DAC Center left off in June, when the center for special needs preschoolers, closed its doors to them for good. Now, DAC Center – or Diagnostic, Adjustive and Corrective Center – children will attend other preschools, including Olive Branch, with regular-education students.

Former DAC principal Lois J. Rieckhoff says that’s good. Nearly all students at her old school had speech or articulation deficits, she has said, and regular-education students will provide them a strong model.

Meanwhile, some of the regular-education preschoolers who previously would have attended mobile classrooms at some elementary schools. Those units were demolished recently, and as of this year, no students in the division will take classes in mobiles. Leaders have been working for years toward that goal.

Stuckwisch said the new Simonsdale plays a part in helping them finally achieve it.

Old faces, new places

Students will see a few familiar administrators in different schools this year. Robyn Champ, former assistant principal at Douglass Park Elementary, and Dusti Johnson, former assistant principal at Westhaven Elementary, have switched into each other’s old jobs.

Meanwhile, Rieckhoff, DAC’s former principal, has become principal at the new Olive Branch Preschool Center.

Company adopts Brighton Ricoh USA has adopted Brighton Elementary, and like any good parent, the company is working to give Brighton students a strong start to the school year.

Employees delivered backpacks, notebooks, crayons and other items to the school this month, and they plan to volunteer in different capacities throughout the year, said Maureen Mizelle, the school division’s spokeswoman.