Trent Elementary School Looking For Home During Renovation Project

Of all the questions surrounding the renovation of Trent Elementary, there’s one that parents, students and teachers are hanging on.

Where will the students go next year, while construction workers tear apart and then rebuild the school?

“I don’t have any idea. I’ve been racking my brains for an empty building or a building with a basement,” said Trent Principal Shelley Harding.

There may be better prospects.

Under East Valley School District’s bond issue, which voters passed last February, the district will add classrooms to several schools. The additions will be complete for the start of school next fall.

Skyview Elementary is due to grow by eight new classrooms. And Skyview now houses several early childhood classes in four portable classrooms.

If the early childhood classes were moved, for the year, either to churches in the neighborhood, or to East Farms Elementary - which is gaining four new classrooms - that would clear out 12 classrooms at Skyview.

“We want as many of the staff and kids together (during Trent’s renovation) as possible,” Harding said.

“That’s the topic of debate right now,” said Tom Crouch, business manager.

Superintendent Chuck Stocker mentioned the possibility of moving Trent’s fifth graders next year on to the two middle schools.

“That way they would just continue on there into sixth grade,” Stocker said. Each of the two middle schools is gaining two new classrooms.

Officials say they’re also looking for possible sites at local businesses. The classroom additions are due to be complete by August 1997. Unspoken is the possibility that construction at Skyview, East Farms and the other schools next spring and summer might run into delays, necessitating a plan B for the Trent students next year.

Plans for the interim year must be approved by the school board, probably no later than February.

The school board recently approved education specifications presented by ALSC Architects for the Trent renovation.

Plans are for the school, originally built in the 1940s, to be revamped from its current 17 classrooms to as many as 23.

That would raise the school’s capacity from 476 students to 644.

An alley between existing wings of the school is to be enclosed to house a new library. And the office, which now has no view of the main entrance, would be located where the current library is, with views of both a front entrance and a rear, bus drop-off entrance.

, DataTimes