Problems addressed at College Station Elementary
Changes are already underway at College Station Elementary School. Concerned parents went to the Pulaski County Special School District to complain about issues with the building and school grounds.The district is now sprucing up the school.Monday morning, architects will be at College Station figuring out how to fix the bathrooms. That's because a group of parents brought a list of concerns to the school board to try to make things better for their children."I was very surprised. I did not know the school looked like this. They actually rezoned us," explains Ghia May. May's three children now go to College Station Elementary, and it is not by choice."When I came, I was not happy at all," she says.So she did something about it. May, and other parents, took action, and the school board took notice."The bathrooms were probably a big concern for parents," said FOX16’s Kelly Dudzik."Yeah, they're old," agreed PCSSD’s Gary Beck.Friday, Beck, the district’s Acting Executive Director for Support Services told FOX16 parents can expect to see changes soon thanks to stimulus money."The good thing about it is because there's two big sets of them here that we can go ahead and start the renovations of them," says Beck about the bathrooms.May’s biggest problem is the playground."Any one of them could walk off and be in that wooded area and be lost for a while," she says.The district says the overgrown area beyond the fence is not school property. "We've got to know who it belongs to so we can maybe have some conversations maybe about us helping with the maybe some clean up of it. That would be beneficial because it is overgrown," said Beck.Exposed cables are also a concern, but since they aren't dangerous for kids, the district won't be fixing them right away.One of the concerns the district will fix right away is the drainage problem. Because of all the rain we've had, it's just drifted down into a stairwell, and people are stepping in it."Our plans are to do some grading here with the drain on the far end down there. It probably gets an inch right here from what we've seen. There are some drains right here, but they're not doing a good enough job," explained Beck.Since May’s two youngest just started Kindergarten, you can bet she's going to stay on top of what's happening."Pulaski County we're all suffering. All the schools pretty much. Even some of the newer schools. Their roofs are leaking, so I think it's good. I hope the communication line stays open," says May.Heavy machinery will have to be used to fix the drainage problem, and the classrooms are so close it would be disruptive to the children if it were to happen during the school day.The next regular school board meeting is October 13. That's when parents decided they'd go back and get answers from the district. At that point it'll be one month since they originally brought everything up.About two-hundred pre-K through fifth grade students attend College Station Elementary. There is also a gifted and talented program there.
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