Once home to the largest enrollment of Westerville’s elementary schools, Hawthorne Elementary staff have had to share classrooms, occupy the school stage, and work in hallways to provide additional support to students.
Now many of those educators — intervention specialists, those who work with English learners or students with special needs — have a dedicated space to work in as a result of attendance boundary adjustments and an ongoing renovation project that started over the summer.
“With the renovation, there is more space for the kids to do a lot of things,” Principal Ernest Clinkscale said. “It does make a lot of difference.”
Hawthorne is among a handful of buildings this school year to feature facility upgrades as part of the district’s first phase of a facilities master plan residents approved in 2019. This summer, Whittier Elementary started its renovation and addition project while work continued at Westerville South High School with updates to another academic wing and the media center.
Renovations at Hawthorne will be ongoing but staff say the work completed so far has made a difference. The school’s enrollment last year was actually larger than that of the district’s smallest middle school. However, space has been gained and repurposed at Hawthorne as a result of the school having approximately 200 fewer students upon the opening of Minerva France Elementary.
“It’s super exciting to see everything that’s being done,” said Melissa Krempasky, an Instructional coach who was previously housed on the school stage next to the cafeteria. Now, her office sits close to the entrance of the building, where she can meet with teachers or work with students in a quiet space.
“It’s been a huge change for me,” she said.
The building has new floors and the walls have been painted to align with the new space theme set for the school. The building features three flexible learning spaces where students can collaborate in small groups or work independently.
“Now everyone has a proper educational space to work in and it’s been great,” Clinkscale said.
In addition to the educational spaces, staff now have a conference room as well as a workspace where they can create materials for their classes and students. The copier now operates out of the workspace, freeing up room in its previous home — the teacher’s lounge.
The lounge also received updated floors but part of its makeover comes from Capital Kia, which donated appliances, decorations, kitchen supplies and snacks.
Ericka Boesh, a reading intervention specialist, previously shared a room with three other teachers, each of them using bookshelves to create boundaries. Now she has a separate room that includes a touchscreen display and offers more space than she had before.
“I’ll be able to interact with kids and not worry about disrupting others,” she said. “So there’s a little bit more space to breathe.”
The next phase of work at Hawthorne will focus on its classroom with upgrades to technology and classroom furniture and its cafeteria.
“We feel like our students deserve the best. We come in here and try to give them the best education, the most love so we want a building to reflect that,” Clinkscale said.