Valley school staffs prepare for students

School doesn’t start for a few more weeks, but class was in months ago for the office staff at Liberty Lake Elementary School.

Staff spent days calling families of more than 700 children, asking whether they would be returning this year, and have spent many more days organizing forms and paperwork.

“Sometimes we wonder if there is enough time to get it all done,” said Kathy Hart, assistant secretary at the school. “We want to be prepared.”

Preparations are being made across the Spokane Valley, as students get ready to head back to school.

Central Valley School District offices opened Wednesday for registration. School starts Sept. 8.

The East Valley, West Valley and Freeman School District offices are also open for registration. East Valley students head back Aug. 30, Freeman Aug. 31, and West Valley Sept. 7.

In Liberty Lake and Greenacres, growing pains have kept staff at both elementaries pretty busy. Both schools will be over capacity this year.

This summer one portable was installed on the grounds of each school to help alleviate the pinch. Each portable has two classrooms.

When Liberty Lake opens its doors for the school year, with an anticipated student population of at least 740, it will be the largest elementary school in Spokane County and bigger than all of the Spokane Valley middle schools.

Liberty Lake will have five sections each of grades one through five, and six sessions of half-day kindergarten, and still more children are walking through the door.

“If you know you are big, you plan for it. If we’re nervous, that makes everybody nervous,” said Linda Uphus, Liberty Lake principal. “We want everyone to feel special. When kindergartners come in to register for the first time, it’s like a family holiday, and we can’t minimize that.”

Pam Guerdette brought the youngest of her three children to Liberty Lake on Wednesday to register for kindergarten.

When introduced to school staff, Mason, 5, lifted up the bottom of his shorts to proudly display three fresh Band-Aids on his legs where just an hour before he had received immunization shots.

“I heard there were only a couple of kindergarten spaces left, so we thought we better take care of things” Guerdette said.

Her family had just moved back to Liberty Lake from Montana. Her other two children, a second-grader and fourth-grader, had previously attended school at Liberty Lake.

“There was some concern about whether they would have slots for them,” Guerdette said. “It’s very well-managed. I think the high numbers have forced them to a level of organization above others.”

Students will not find out room assignments until the last few days of August, and Uphus is hopeful that she won’t have to send any students to other nearby schools because of a lack of space.

Last year two classes of students were bused to Adams and Progress Elementary Schools.

Parents have consistently said they don’t want their children bused away from their neighborhoods.

“My goal right now is keeping everybody here,” Uphus said.