New high school opens in Beacon

Staggered start eases transition

By Maeleeke J. Lavan
Poughkeepsie Journal

 

Lee Ferris/Poughkeepsie Journal Beacon High School senior Diamond Holmes goes to her locker after her Mathematics III class Monday. It was the first day of classes in the $30.4 million building and for elementary and middle school students.

BEACON -- The open foyer and help desk in the front of the new Beacon High School felt quite different for junior Jennifer Starkey.

But there was a familiar ring to a other aspects of school Tuesday.

''We already got homework in history. But it's mainly just getting used to it,'' Starkey said of the building.

Tuesday was the first day of classes for juniors and seniors at the new school. But they'll get two days off now while other grades get initiated in the facility.

Administrators decided the transition into the $30.4 million building would be easier for students and staff if the student body started classes on staggered days.

Sophomores will start today and freshmen will start Thursday. The entire student body will be together for the first time Friday.

Students in the district's elementary and middle schools returned Tuesday.

Beacon is the first district to open its doors this year to a jam-packed total of 3,480 students. Most other Dutchess and Ulster county districts begin classes today or Thursday.

Junior Latisha Delandro said she wasn't quite ready to end her summer of sleeping in, but starting school before other districts gives her, and her peers, the chance to ''get it over with,'' and get used to being back in school.

Computer boxes filled with library books sat ready to be unpacked as staff settled into the first day of classes. Staff members will still have the opportunity to shuttle furniture, books and other items back and forth between the old and new school as they adjust to having more room and needing less equipment.

All of the school's computers were unpacked and ready to go by mid-August, district Director of Technology Charles Symon said.

Teacher also excited

Global studies teacher Marie Jane Slesinski was almost as excited as some of the students to be in a new place with new things.

''Look at my chair!'' Slesinski exclaimed as she sat with other teachers in a prep room in one wing of the school full of new desks, computers and chairs.

''It's a big building,'' she said. ''I turned the corner and saw a classroom I'd never seen before.''

Students and teachers aren't the only ones adjusting to changes in their academic surroundings. Principal John Murphy is a new addition to the high school and the district.

Murphy, who began work in August, said the start of school has been refreshing.

''I'm settled in,'' he said. ''It's probably the nicest place I've ever been. There's a great deal of kindness here. I've never had people come up to me and introduce themselves to me as much as here.''

Murphy said he expects the year to be full of nuances he hopes everyone will fully adjust to and embrace.

''I expect that people would continue to be excited about the infinite possibilities that exist here, and that they'll try to do things in new ways and take advantage of the technology and state-of-the-art facilities,'' he said.