Hello Waterford Parents,
Over the past few years there has been a concern that our projected growth would put a strain on the limited space we have available at our school. Our numbers have been increasing year after year, and a few years ago we lost the use of one of our cottages. In years prior, one of the cottages was used as the art room, and the other as the music room. The last was used for CASA, the after school program. When the school lost the use of the third cottage, CASA had to relocate to the cafeteria. This resulted in the loss of a space to be used for after school activities, clubs and programs. The two remaining cottages were housing both of the 5th grade classrooms.
Many of us have experienced the benefits of the small community feel our school offers. Unfortunately, due to the lack of available space, our school sits at over 100% occupancy and last year third grade reached capacity. As a result, families who lived in Waterford were unable to enroll their children at WES, and are forced to enroll their children in neighboring schools.
For the past year we have worked to bring attention to these problems and asked the school board to approve an addition to WES. In December of 2021 the school board voted to approve our addition into the CIP for completion in 2027. The addition would include 4 large classrooms, a multipurpose room to be used as a gymnasium and auditorium, additional restrooms, and storage space. In addition we were given an additional cottage to add a classroom immediately.
This addition is particularly important because currently both fifth grade classrooms and one fourth grade classroom are outside in the cottages. Two of these classrooms don't have running water, and students have to use badges to enter the building with buddies. Having so many students outside the main building poses a serious safety concern.
At a meeting on August 29th we learned that our addition is currently only "penciled in".
Slides from that presentation can be found here. It will only stay in the CIP and move forward in the planning process if we as parents fight for it. This can only be accomplished by attending and speaking at the school board meetings. We are hoping to not only keep it in the budget, but fight to have the completion date moved up. Lucketts Elementary School was successful in achieving this a few years ago. With the support of the parents from the school they were able to address their concerns with the board, and managed to win approval of their proposed addition. We are hoping to accomplish the same within our community. The first step is to sign up using the link below to be added to our contact list.
An addition to WES will benefit all students and staff. The process could take a few years from start to finish and we need all of the help and support we can get! If you are a family that still has children who haven’t started school yet we could really use your support. This committee will be open to all community members. Please feel free to share this information with neighbors and friends who have children that aren’t enrolled yet, but will be students at WES in the future!
Thank you so much for your time and support!
Lisa McLaughlin
Lmmclaughlin62@gmail.com