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Saturday's Internet Edition, July 31, 2010.
CRES students, staff bid farewell to old campus
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Photo by Barbara Edwards
The entire Cosumnes River Elementary School student body of 1948 (photo top) is photographed in front of the school the year the campus was established. The current CRES student body (photo bottom) reenacted the original photo on May 24 to commemorate the final academic day held at the original campus.
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By Barbara Edwards
River Valley Times Reporter
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Cosumnes River Elementary School (CRES) students and staff left the campus for summer break with bittersweet emotions as they bid farewell to the campus that will change drastically with the construction of the new school slated to open in fall 2010.
The old campus is due to be torn down during the summer, prior to the new school’s grand opening. CRES has hosted the education of thousands of area children since its establishment in 1948.
The school had the distinction of being the smallest elementary school in the Elk Grove Unified School District (EGUSD). The new campus will provide all of the special amenities that the old campus lacked, but many new additions to the campus are planned. In spite of this, many, such as CRES clerk Norma Allen, have mixed emotions. “It’s kind of sad,” she said. “With the larger school, the staff won’t be in such close proximity to each other.”
The comfortable familiarity and history of the school and the surrounding area cannot be denied according to CRES Principal Mike Gulden. “I will miss walking out those back doors and seeing the hillside landscape on a foggy morning,” he said. “I’ll miss the ‘coziness’ of the campus and the close-knit feeling that came along with it. I will miss the history of the place, something that I am reminded of when individuals who have had a part in its past drop by to say hello."
Gulden added, "I will also miss greeting all the students as they cross over the automobile traffic lane to enter through the doors to a campus. In the words of (CRES teacher) Ronelle Miller, 'It was never about the buildings themselves but about what took place within the space.’"
Gulden intends to continue some important daily traditions as well as establishing new ones. “I will take with me the understanding of how important a tight-knit school community is,” he said. “No matter how new or large the campus is, greeting the students in the morning is only partly about safety and always about getting the day off on the right foot, and I will find a new view to ground me on those mornings when things seem a bit askew.”
CRES secretary Therese Favro is disappointed that the main building could not have been preserved. “I’m sad about the main building because of the history,” said Favro. “It would have been nice if we could have used it as a community center instead of tearing it down.”
Before leaving for summer vacation on May 24, the entire CRES student body posed for a special photograph, reenacting the one taken of the first CRES class of 1948.
According to EGUSD Facilities and Planning Department, demolition of the old CRES campus is slated to begin on June 17 and should be completed by early August. All portable buildings and classrooms will be removed from the site.
The letters that hung over the school’s front entrance for so many years, spelling out the CRES name, has been preserved and will be relocated to the library of the new campus.
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Online publication, Copyright 2005, The River Valley Times.
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Copyright 2005, EZ Edit Web Publishing.
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