Welcome 2010

Hello Everyone!

Another summer has passed and we’ve been busy here at school making-ready for a new crop of students who, in just a couple weeks, will be walking through the door to begin the 2010-2011 school year. We can’t wait!  We’re especially excited about the return of our kindergartens to the building, after 4 years of attending the kindergarten center.

I’m glad to say that, at this writing, our enrollment for the upcoming school year is hovering around 338 students, but honestly it is changing almost daily.  Due to the opening of Willow Lane Elementary School and the resultant redistricting, our student population has been reduced by about 216 children.  This meant the removal of our beloved portable classrooms that had been a part of educational landscape for the past 5 years.  As odd as it may seem to some, those classrooms became an integral part of the school.  Students in the lower grades couldn’t wait to enter 5^th grade so they could attend school in the Learning Annex (so christened, by Mrs. White when our 3^rd grades were reassigned there for the 2009-2010 school year).

So they are gone, and in the spring we will have a beautiful grass area for our students to enjoy at recess.

We also will be experiencing an influx of new specialist teachers . . . six to be exact.  We will be welcoming 2 new Art teachers, 2 new Music teachers and 2 new Library teachers.

Things change  . . . and for the Alburtis school community these changes have come with a price.  For us, the price of our reduced enrollment was a reduction in staff . . . 13 teachers and 13 of our staff/instructional assistants were transferred to Willow Lane to provide services to that newly created student population.

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the contribution these individuals made to Alburtis School.  Each has left a lasting impression on all of us; many, in the form of his/her handprint set in wall tile throughout the building’s hallways.  These tiles are very special to all of us, because they represent the transition from “little Alburtis to “Big Alburtis” when the school was rebuilt and re-opened 7 years ago.  To these dedicated professionals we’d like to say that you will always be remembered here.

With that being said all of us are ready for another outstanding school year!!!

Dr. Ronald P. Renaldi

Principal, Alburtis Elementary School