Centertown lobbies for new school

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Centertown principal Janie Moore and Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale show how the school’s narrow stairwell, where two people cannot walk side by side, constitutes a safety hazard for students.

At least twice a year, the classroom of Centertown Elementary first-grade teacher Faye Tinsley is flooded. The water rusts desks and damages anything else that might be left on the floor.

“It covers at least two-thirds of my room every time,” Tinsley said. “I have to be careful to never leave anything on the floor. It’s very trying. What’s worse is that when ever it does flood, we have to find somewhere else for the students to go.”

Tinsley’s classroom is located in the school’s lower level, in what used to be the cafeteria before the aging school received its last major renovation and addition in the mid 1980s. Now almost 20 years later, Centertown and Warren County Schools officials say the 54-year old building, the oldest school facility in the county, has outlived its usefulness and that the community deserves a new school.

“This school was built in 1949 and it shows,” said Centertown principal Janie Moore. “I think the county has more than gotten back whatever money they have put into the building. Any new money to spend in this building would just be patching the cracks. It would not be a good investment of taxpayer money.”

The problems with the school, she said, are numerous. In addition to the flooding, in years past the school had problems with termites and because of old wiring needs an electrical upgrade. Also, the septic lines which run through the ground adjacent to the school have reached capacity.

“We haven’t had any heath or other issues yet, but you never know what may crop up or what the fire marshal or health inspector might say. We’re living on borrowed time here,” Moore said.

In addition to the physical problems of the building, Moore said Centertown School, because of its layout, is not conducive to the elementary teaching style.

For example, because of space restraints, the school’s several fourth- and sixth-grade classrooms are separated from each other, with some students in the same grade being on two different floors of the school, as well as some being housed in outside portable buildings, which themselves are aging and will soon have to be replaced. This separation has been shown to result in lower standardized test scores, Moore said.

“It’s just not a feasible arrangement of classrooms at all,” she said. “We’re supposed to move into the modern world. As such, we should look at the research on how to best educate children.”

The bottom line, said Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale, is that Centertown School has reached the point than any money used to upgrade it would be futile.

“It’s a matter of reaching the point of getting the optimum use out of the building,” Hale said. “We reached that point years ago really. We’ve done just about all we can do with it.”

To highlight the need of a new school at Centertown, as well as other capital project requests, the school board has invited Warren County Commissioners to a dinner at the school at 6 p.m. Thursday.