Tony Overman/The Olympian
Parent volunteers Diane Boesenberg (right) and Nancy Hurley-Madison transfer kindergarten classroom supplies Saturday morning from Lincoln Elementary School to nearby Trinity Lutheran Church.

Workers ready school for kids

Part of Lincoln Elementary closed following the quake

LIONA TANNESEN, THE OLYMPIAN

OLYMPIA -- Thanks to the earthquake, 23 kindergartners will be promoted to big-people chairs next week.

"Kindergartners will think that's pretty cool," teacher Wendy Frankel-Reed said as she figured out what to move out of Lincoln Elementary School, which houses the Options program. "We're trying to make this an adventure."

Parents, teachers, staff and district workers helped tote books, blocks, balls and other school necessities to Trinity Lutheran Church, St. John's Episcopal Church and other rooms at Lincoln Elementary on Saturday.

An engineer said the school is safe, but the east facade has been damaged.

That end of the school will be closed for three to six weeks until the repair work is completed.

The teachers aren't moving because the building is unsafe but because classrooms won't be close enough to fire escapes with the east entrance closed, Principal Cheryl Petra said.

"In architectural terms, this building performed beautifully," Petra said. "I was in the quake going, 'OK, it's holding, it's holding.' "

Drawers flew open and books flew off the shelves.

Most of the children were at recess.

"They came home with tales of the water tower swinging back and forth," said Greg Tudor, who on Saturday was labeling small wooden chairs in the hallway for a teacher.

His daughters, 7-year-old Erin and 5-year-old Megan, attend Lincoln.

"My youngest was on the swing," Tudor said. "She was looking around going, 'Who's pushing me?' "

Megan, Erin and the other children haven't been back in the school since they were assembled outside after the earthquake.

They will be allowed back in the building Tuesday after a 9 a.m. assembly in the gymnasium.

Other school activities -- such as Friday's 6:30 p.m. auction -- will carry on despite all the other work to be done.

Parent Arun Rohila efficiently boxed up items in Michael Dempster's classroom, which looked like a child's dream.

A plane and a globe dangle from the ceiling. Tambourines and triangles hang from bulletin boards.

The other side of the room is a hodgepodge of stuff -- ranging from Elmer's glue to a tangled slinky -- for teaching science.

"I like stuff," said Dempster, the school's music and science specialist. "Kids like stuff."

Rohila said his son, Raj, will be moving into the classroom with his teacher.

"I'm going to be itinerant," Dempster said.

Other helpers pushed child-sized stools around the school in garbage cans with wheels.

"It's kind of like the start of school again," parent Jena Embry-Loes said, "except it has to happen in two days."

School information

-Capital High School will resume classes Monday.

-Avanti High School will resume classes Monday. Students should enter through the doorway closest to the old Washington gym.

-Olympia School District staff will return to the Knox Center on Monday. The main entrance on Legion Way and the lower parking lot are closed.

-Lincoln Elementary School students will resume classes Tuesday, beginning with a morning assembly in the school's gymnasium. Students are not to report to classrooms.

A meeting for Lincoln parents is scheduled for 4 to 6 p.m. today in the school's gymnasium, 213 21st Ave. S.E. Children are welcome, but no child care will be available, and children will not be allowed to play outside.

The Olympian Copyright 2000

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