After almost 50 years of education, Spartan Village Elementary School closed its doors due to budget cuts last spring, leaving many new challenges for the East Lansing school district this year.
The closure of Spartan Village Elementary, 1460 Middlevale Road, voids the contract between the university and the school district - returning the building to the university. University officials hope to determine a new use for the building by the end of September.
About 60 of the children who were displaced by the school's closing will attend Red Cedar Elementary School, 1110 Narcissus Drive, this fall. The remaining students were either assigned to one of the six other East Lansing schools or had the choice of where they wanted to attend.
To accommodate the influx of children, Red Cedar Elementary has made numerous preparations to make the transition easier.
"Red Cedar staff have worked hard to plan activities that will include the Spartan Village families," said East Lansing School Board President Barbara McMillan.
The school offered tours and an ice cream social to help new students and families become familiar with Red Cedar. On Tuesday, there will be a ceremony to celebrate the joining of the two schools in the Red Cedar Elementary gymnasium.
"We're going to have a formalized coming together and building of a community," Red Cedar Principal Mindy Emerson said. "Many Spartan Village staff members came here this year and I see it as rising from the ashes as something brand new that we can work on together with our global theme."
With a large number of international families, Red Cedar offers the same level of diversity that Spartan Village once had, including teaching English as a second language.
"We will have kids from over 50 countries, the largest being from China," Emerson said. "The student body diversity will be the same as it was at Spartan Village, but our goal now is to develop something new around the kindergarten and fourth grade-child with the global thrust."
Forming a new mentor program designed to strengthen the relationship between American and international families is another challenge on the plate of the Red Cedar Elementary community. Lewis, who is also working to start the program, is hoping to break down the cultural barriers between American and international families.
"People from different nationalities tend to stick together," Lewis said. "It's hard to get past the cultural barriers, but the kids have been doing it so well and we are trying to learn from them. We have a lot of hope."
Red Cedar Elementary also faces the challenge of raising money for the Red Cedar Community Playground project.
The project has focused on adding playground equipment to accommodate a larger number of students at Red Cedar. East Lansing resident Annie Lewis received a grant from KaBOOM.org for $5,000 to help fund the project, which is set to begin construction Oct. 25.
"The current playground is old and insufficient to meet the new demands created by the loss of Spartan Village Elementary," she said. "This project will ensure that the spirit and values of Spartan Village Elementary live on in the learning and play environment that will be created at Red Cedar Elementary."
Fund-raisers, including "A Mile of Dollars," have been planned to help foot the cost of the playground.
Superintendent Thomas Giblin said the initial move of Spartan Village students to other area schools, along with relocating teachers and reconfiguring schools, has kept district employees busy throughout the summer. The impact of the move on the children is still unknown, he said.
"We'll see what happens starting next Tuesday," Giblin said.
