One Building, Two Schools A World Apart

The main hallway at Skyview Elementary School is so long the joke is that teachers need roller skates.

But those who learn and work in this building have another way to adapt. They are divvied up into two schools: Skyview itself, and the Continuous Curriculum School. If, by chance, a visitor becomes lost and unsure which end of the building he or she is in, the clues are obvious:

The Skyview end of the school looks under control, with wide open spaces and carefully chosen hallway displays. The decor is refined, crafted by an architect in the school’s last remodeling.

But at the CCS end, the hallway has morphed into a hybrid classroom-what-have-you. The effect borders on the manic. Arching paper trees compete with murals, artwork and schoolwork. Students are at work on algebra or reading. A hallway cabinet bulges with supplies for parent volunteers.

The two schools have other broad differences. Skyview is a traditional neighborhood school with 320 kids, kindergarten through fifth grade. Continuous Curriculum School is a year-round school with 204 students, kindergarten through eighth grade, almost all of them in multi-age classrooms. CCS kids are on spring break this week, right along with their Skyview neighbors. But often their vacations don’t match up. CCS sometimes runs creative enrichment programs during their vacations.

How do two such different programs share one building? The key lies in the two principals. They’re as different as night and day, said one teacher.

Still, Skyview’s Tammy Fuller and CCS’s Scott Read work on their building partnership almost as if they were working on a marriage.

“I learned a lot of valuable lessons last year,” Fuller said. Primarily, their challenge is one of logistics, they say. Arranging for lunch times and playground times and - most of all - who gets the gym when.

Both principals were new on the site last year. Their second year has gone easier than the first, they say.

“I think last year we thought we needed to work at commingling the staff,” Fuller said. “It’s been easier since we said `we’re all OK, we’re all good teachers. We’re just a bit different.”’

CCS parent and school aide Denise Kolva says one advantage of having students so close to another program is that her own two children can see that the CCS way isn’t the only way.

“Just like I tell our kids that I don’t want you to think this is the only good church just because we go to it. It’s good for them to be exposed to a different way,” she said.

Kolva said any territorial issues between the two schools are far better than last year. In a recent example, CCS was looking for an empty classroom early in the day to offer an enrichment program. The first Skyview teacher the CCS staff asked for help turned them down. But, Kolva said, Skyview’s Fuller jumped in and found another room.

Parents from the two schools work on projects together. A recent sock hop in the gym was the work of both PTA’s. A joint school project with the Pacific Science Center is in the works for next year, said Darla Kopczynski, co-president of the CCS PTA.

A $2,000 Target grant that Read wrote for CCS allowed the creation of the mural in the busy hallway. Money left over went to Skyview for a mural in their hallway. The two murals are a study in contrasts. One shows the unmistakable influence of children at work; the Skyview piece is far more mature.

CCS students play in the Skyview band. But overall, there is little day-to-day contact for the children. The school day at CCS runs 15 minutes earlier. The buses and parents from each school have a clearer shot at the one drop-off zone. The same goes for lunches, recesses and so on.

“It does become a team effort,” Read said. “We are not only colleagues but friends.”

“We’re building partners, not program partners,” Fuller said. The district is looking at space concerns. If CCS continues to grow, the program may outgrow the space at Skyview.

“But until they tell us otherwise,” he said, “this is home.”