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March 6, 2004Students make the best of their new digsCatholic School, Baptist Church welcome themByRecord-Eagle staff writer KINGSLEY - Sure, it's a pain to not have a locker. And some Kingsley seventh- and eighth-graders miss their friends in other grades since moving out of the middle school to make room for high schoolers after roof damage forced them out of their three-year-old building. But eighth-grader Sean Carpenter is happy with his new digs at the Kingsley Baptist Church. "I like this better than our old school; it's homey," he said. He and 130 eighth-grade students relocated to the church this week. The seventh-graders have taken up residence in a few classrooms at St. Mary's Hannah School. Broken and bent trusses were discovered last month in the high school roof. School officials closed the school indefinitely and shifted students to other buildings, a move that likely will last through the school year. Superintendent Michael Jurgensen said he is trying to arrange a meeting next week with the architect, structural engineers and "everybody involved" to devise a plan of action. The school has done some initial work to stabilize the roof, but nothing else has been done to correct the problem, Jurgensen said. Ashley Hoffman now has language arts class in the church sanctuary. She said not having other grades around isn't such a bad thing. "It's like we don't have to put up with all the other grades, and our classes are smaller," she said. "It feels like you get closer to other people." "Yeah, like two inches away," cracked Robert Buckley, as he elbowed past Hoffman to get to the door. The staff, too, is adjusting to the makeshift surroundings, teacher Joel Guy said. Gym class is held on the church's paved parking lot. If it's raining? Cards and board games in the fellowship hall, Guy said. Students at St. Mary's Hannah made cards welcoming the public school seventh-graders to their building. St. Mary's principal Lisa Medina said her staff helped Kingsley move in and get comfortable. "It's going really quite smoothly. All the kids want to see what the big kids are like," she said. "We have our neighbors who were in need, and we had to respond." The biggest thing Kingsley students notice about their new uniform-clad fellow students? "The clothes thing is different," said seventh-grader Beth Knight, but he added the whole deal is "pretty decent."
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