Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Adjustments and some new features will greet students Tuesday at the start of the new school year in Colfax.
A junior high counseling office has been moved to the upper floor and some classrooms have been rearranged to create an area specifically for the junior high. Seventh-graders will arrive this year to a “Bulldog Basecamp,” similar to a homeroom which will be where Kelli Cox will teach English and science.
Cox is part of a designated core group of junior high teachers who will share the same preparation time, in order to provide a better opportunity to coordinate classes.
Junior high counselor Chris Carney's office is now upstairs in space formerly used by Maintenance Superintendent Mark Brown. Brown's office was moved into half of the former high school wood shop.
The other half of the wood shop is being used as the new art room, which in turn became “Bulldog Basecamp.”
The changes serve a certain goal.
“It's kind of a school within a school,” said Colfax Junior-Senior High Principal Carrie Lipe. “Junior high kids are in a different developmental stage of life. We wanted to meet their needs as well as we can.”
The seventh and eighth grade class schedule has also been adjusted – moving P.E. class to later in the day and extending first period.
Junior high classes will now be taught almost exclusively on the junior-senior high school building's second floor.
An open house will be at the school Aug. 28 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
School starts the next day.
Other changes in the building include an added speaker system in each classroom to ensure every student can hear the teacher – and for teachers not to have to speak as loudly. The speakers connect to a wireless microphone worn by teachers. Ceiling projectors were also added to each classroom.
Projectors and speaker systems were also installed at Jennings Elementary School.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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