Driving through a south Des Moines residential neighborhood, you could almost miss Parkside Elementary School as it sits behind a veil of gray tree trunks and a thicket of wetlands. The school, rebuilt in 2010, blends in with the natural setting surrounding it.
Parkside is filled with natural light and views of the wetland.
The connection with the outdoors continues as you enter the building. Every classroom has a view of forest, and some look out to Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. Lines of poetry are painted on walls in bright colors or etched in tiles.
It’s hard to believe a school that houses more than 500 youngsters can feel so serene.
A class gets a literacy lesson in the library.
The library with its soaring ceiling and wall of windows is a favorite spot of students and families. Today, Librarian Sue Hislop is reading a book about penguins to a visiting class. The book is projected on a large screen as she reads. Later, the students will use the library’s computers to go online to see live streaming video of penguins in the wild. “I love that our school has so much technology,” says Hislop.
Down the hall, the Parkside family center buzzes with activity every day. Parents gather here, often with their preschool children in tow, to access a computer, grab a cup of coffee, and get to know other parents. They spend hours in this room as school volunteers, making copies for teachers and prepping materials for classroom projects.
Parent Kim England and her daughter Sailor in the family center.
Kim England and her four-year-old daughter, Sailor, are regulars here. England discovered the family center when her older daughter, Liberty, started kindergarten a year and a half ago. “Everyone was so welcoming,” recalls England. “Parkside just has a great core of people who are really interested in helping kids-- and helping adults find ways to help kids.”
“Everybody contributes here, everybody belongs here, this is their school, and I know parents feel comfortable here,” says Principal Robin Lamoureux.
Principal Robin Lamoureux gets a hug.
“Parkside has a genuine family feel,” says kindergarten teacher Alecia Mabalay, who attended Parkside as a child. “Close colleagues, close students, close families—we are a close-knit community!”
Library Assistant JoAnne Williams has been at Parkside since 1984. She says, “I know all the kids. I know their siblings. I see them around town. The kids love to see you in the store. It makes their eyes just sparkle!”
Volunteer Barbara Cornwall helps two students with accelerated math.
Barbara Cornwall, a retired teacher, has been volunteering here for eight or nine years. She is known as the “Class Grandma” in Ms. Yee’s fourth-grade room. Cornwall worked with many of these fourth graders two years ago in their second-grade classroom. “You can really see how much they’ve progressed,” she says. “It’s nice to know I had a little bit to do with that progress.”
Today, Ms. Yee’s class is working on fractions. Math has been a big focus at Parkside, and that has resulted in improvement in student learning. But “we’re not where we’d like to be,” says Lamoureux, noting that the staff has been looking at data from schools with similar ethnic and socio-economic diversity that outperform Parkside.
Ms. Yee’s fourth graders learn about fractions.
“That led the staff to ask some hard questions. They decided we should reduce recess because we were spending too much time in transition,” says Lamoureux. “That has given us more learning time and reduced our behavior issues.”
Kids still have time to wiggle, thanks to strategically scheduled PE and music times. “And teachers know their kids,” adds Lamoureux. “Teachers can see when their kids need to move. They have them stand up and do an activity or take a walk outside.”
Paula McClurg has been at Parkside 15 years, first as a parent and a paraprofessional, and now as a second-grade teacher. “We have high expectations for students,” says McClurg. “We have a very diverse population, and we all work hard recognizing individual needs of each and every one of our students and meeting those needs academically, emotionally, and socially.”
Parkside is one of two elementary schools in the district that houses Challenge classrooms for students who are accelerated learners. And it has one of the only orchestra programs in the district—a grassroots effort started by parents. The school district started funding the program a few years ago, and it’s growing in popularity with students.
Parkside has put together a rich set of after-school clubs and activities for students, as well, including chess club, math club, Lego club, science club, crochet club, piano club, football, basketball, girls’ softball, choir, and Girls on the Run running club. Teachers volunteer to stay late and tutor students. Community members run many of the activities. “You can walk around until 5:00, and this school is still humming,” says Lamoureux.
Fifth-grade teacher Summer Yost has given a lot of time to the after-school programs. “It is the most amazing feeling to see all of these activities where the students are engaged in learning and having so much fun at the same time,” she says.
Parent Renee Wennington appreciates the wide range of options for her son, Brayson, both in school and after school. “They have so many things for kids to be involved in. He never would have had those opportunities in his old school,” she says. “If Mrs. Lamoureux sees something he might like, she says, ‘Hey, Brayson, you might want to try this.’ This year he has just blossomed!”
“We are constantly telling students ‘Join up, belong,” says Lamoureux. “We want students to have these experiences in elementary school, where we know them, so when they get middle school and high school they will be more likely to jump on [clubs and activities], when the likelihood of being known is a little bit less.”
The Parkside culture is big on relationship-building, with Lamoureux as the chief role model. She greets children by name and stops to talk with them in the halls or to get a hug. She works with small groups on academics and coaches the school’s Dance Crew.
Her motivation is to give students a strong send-off into what lies beyond elementary school. “I really try to build relationships with them early; so when they get to that difficult time of sixth grade, they know there’s someone in their corner.”