A tidal wave – that’s how Dori Mashburn remembers the halls at Gateway Middle School last year between classes and after lunch.
“It was a sea of students,” said Mashburn, president of the school’s PTSA. “If you happened to be walking down the hall and eighth grade lunch kids were moving out of the cafeteria, you had to step aside to the hallway just to survive.”
The halls will be far less crowded next week, when students return for the first day of school. Gateway lost about 400 students – about 37 percent of its population – to boundary changes that take effect this fall. The changes aimed to relieve crowding at Gateway.
In the newer, quieter environment, it will be easier for students to eat lunch as well.
“The lunch line would typically go out into the hallway and if you were last in line you had about two minutes to eat your lunch before the bell rang,” said Linda Carbajal, who was a Gateway parent last year and is now at Jackson High School.
The crowding last year also meant a shortage of lockers for students and the use of eight portables for classes. The portables have been retired.
But there are potential downsides to a smaller school as well.
“The bittersweet part is that we had to say goodbye to some wonderful teachers,” Carbajal said.
About 16 full time equivalent teachers left the school because of the boundary changes.
In addition, several PTSA volunteers moved with the boundary changes or graduation.
“I think it’s a concern we’re not going to have enough parent volunteers for all the activities PTSA sponsors such as school dances and different events,” Mashburn said. “If there aren’t enough parent volunteers then the activities just won’t happen.”
Funding could be a challenge too – activities and PTSA offerings are funded by members. Last year, there were 382 PTSA members for a student body of almost 1,100.
That’s why the PTSA has been doing a lot of outreach, Mashburn said.
Peter Scott, Gateway’s new principal this year, said the biggest change will be less crowded lunches and hallways.
“We still need strong systems in place to make sure everything is working smoothly – supervision, making sure students know where to go,” he said. “675 kids is still not a small school.”
This year Gateway’s enrollment has shrunk down to the size it was in 1994, when the school opened, he said.
Altogether, the transitions caused by the boundary change have gone smoothly, he said.
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