WESTBROOK – After months of discussions, number crunching and schedule shifting, the Westbrook School Department is getting ready to pull the trigger on an historic reconfiguration of the district.

Starting Tuesday, Westbrook students, teachers and even administrators will be getting used to different places and different faces.

“It’s virtually new buildings with new people,” School Superintendent Marc Gousse said.

Until now, elementary students in Westbrook attended either Prides Corner or Saccarappa schools until Grade 2, then moved to either Congin or Canal until reaching Grade 5. They spent grades 6-8 at the Westbrook Middle School before graduating to the high school.

But as the school department finalized its 2012-2013 budget earlier this year, it was clear that the Prides Corner School could not stay open, with millions of dollars the department didn’t have needed to make serious repairs to the aging building.

Shutting it down became the catalyst for the sweeping changes, making all three remaining elementary schools K-4 buildings, and sending all fifth-graders to the middle school. Those changes also required tweaks to bus schedules.

“This is a better overall transition,” said Peter Lancia, the department’s director of teaching and learning.

But implementing the change involved a massive logistical battle, getting fifth-grade teachers moved from the elementary buildings into the middle school, and teachers from Prides Corner into other schools.

Gloria Noyes, a fifth-grade teacher, transferred to the middle school from Congin. She said the transition has gone well, but still a bit jarring.

“All my boxes were stacked back there, (and) I didn’t know where anything was,” she said this week, pointing to the rear wall of her classroom.

But with less than a week until the first day, Noyes has unpacked and laid out books for her kids on desks, which also came from Congin. All she has left to do, she said, is hang posters and other decorations.

“I have 24 desks here, and we have plenty of room,” she said.

Fellow Congin fifth-grade teacher Sarah Bradbury’s room also looks ready, with desks neatly arranged in groups, with books in neat stacks on each. Near the door, a handwritten sign reads, “Love what you do.”

“The classrooms are beautiful,” she said.

Mentally, she said, it was a tough move, after she and Noyes worked together and bonded with other teachers and kids at Congin.

“I think the hardest part was the fact that our families are breaking up,” she said.

Even the administrators are changing places. Former Congin Principal Brian Mazjanis is moving to Saccarappa, while Kathryn Hersom will switch from Saccarappa to Canal School principal. Former Prides Corner Principal Janet Crawford will move to Congin, and Vickie Hebert, the former interim principal at Canal, is now assistant principal and athletic director at the middle school.

“I’ve just been amazed,” Crawford said of the whole transition process. “We just love our new spaces.”

And it won’t be entirely unfamiliar for anyone. Crawford said six Prides Corner teachers and assorted staff members transitioned with her to Congin. Bradbury said since fourth-graders from all the elementary schools will start fifth grade at the middle school this year, they will recognize teachers who are moving to the new building with them.

“The kids from Congin know the five Congin teachers that are here,” she said. “The Canal kids know the Canal teachers. Each of those kids are going to know somebody.”

Gousse and Lancia said that the department has done everything it can to make the transition smooth. Normal “step-up” days have already happened for the kids, much as they would have happened for fifth-graders moving up to sixth grade in the previous system. The department is also holding extra professional development throughout the year for the staff to help get everyone acclimated.

Crawford also noted the department created a “moving manual,” distributed to faculty, staff, and administrators, which covered every imaginable detail.

“People had excellent directions about what to do, and when to do it,” she said.

Overall, Crawford said, everyone has had a positive attitude, all working together.

“It’s actually been uplifting,” she said.

Noyes said with the new school year, she expects everyone, students and staff alike, to build new bonds to replace the ones that were lost.

“We’re already developing another family,” she said.

School Superintendent Marc Gousse said the process of moving the fifth-graders and their teachers to the middle school has been a smooth operation due to the participation of several departments. Photo by Rich Obrey
Moving from Congin School to teach incoming fifth-graders at Westbrook Middle School, teacher Sarah Bradbury takes care of all the details Tuesday to make sure her classroom is ready for the first day of school, Sept. 4. (Photo by Rich Obrey)