As principal of Enota Elementary School, Elfreda McRae used to oversee hundreds and hundreds of kindergartners and first-graders.

The situation will be much different for her in the 2003-04 school year, which starts Friday.

McRae will head New Holland Elementary School, one of Gainesville City Schools' two new elementaries and the elementary with the smallest enrollment, just 300 students. Enota approached 950 students under her watch in 2001-02.

"I want a small population," said the 25-year educator, who led Enota for 12 years. "It's a new building and we've got to get the bugs out. If I (had) a large population, my attention would be divided and I never want my attention taken away from the students."

The first few months of the new school year will seem like old times, however.

Until construction on New Holland is finished, possibly in October, the school will have to use classrooms and share space at Enota Elementary.

But "we want to be our own school," McRae said. "We don't want to infringe on Enota. It will be like two separate schools on the same campus."

Media specialist Heather Scott said she foresees the biggest challenge being "sharing all the materials with the students and the teachers."

"It will be a different (situation), but it will be a good learning experience," Scott said.

McRae hopes New Holland can move to its new building on Barn Street, off Jesse Jewell Parkway, Oct. 13-14, when the system is holding staff workdays and students won't be in school. A Thanksgiving move is also a possibility.

New Holland students will take a field trip to the school before they start classes there, McRae said.

Work started late last year on the new $7.5 million brick, single-story school after the city school board conducted an extensive search for land. The school sits on the edge of the historic New Holland community.

The school system is using the 1-cent sales tax for school construction to build the school, along with Gainesville Elementary off McEver Road Extension and Spring Road, to create much-needed space.

The system is projected to have nearly 4,600 students this year, compared to 3,500 five years ago.

McRae knew before work began on the school that she would be principal and has spent much of the past year assembling a staff and working with them on the transition to the new school.

"It's been a long time since I've seen teachers as pumped up as these are," she said. "And you don't hear any complaining. That's a principal's dream, along with getting a new school."

The school will serve as the system's Core Knowledge Academy, which focuses on limiting "repetition and gaps in student learning by providing a sequence of information to be taught at each grade level," according to school literature.

As part of the system's "programs of choice," New Holland and each of the city's other elementary schools have developed a different way to present state-mandated curriculum.

Also, each school is serving kindergarten through fifth grade; in past years, none of the three elementary schools served the same grades.

Another change for students is voluntary uniforms. McRae thinks many parents will opt for them.

"I know a lot of parents want that," she said.

Sonya Rucker, who has a daughter in first grade and a son in fifth grade, said she favored New Holland over the other elementary schools because she believes it will stress a basics education.

"They need basic knowledge before they can do anything else," she said.

For Crystal Wilmont, the decision to send her three children to the school was one largely of convenience. She works as a first-grade paraprofessional and media clerk. Plus, she's the school's PTA president.

But she likes Core Knowledge.

She believes it will put students "on a quest for lifelong learning" and the curriculum is "challenging but attainable for every student."

Assistant principal Jill Goforth, who served as Enota's literacy coach for the past two years, said having a smaller school will be an advantage in carrying out Core Knowledge.

"We can fine-tune it and make it work well," she said.

Bertha Shields, who will teach first grade at the school, said she's excited about the changes ahead.

"The curriculum is rigorous, as it should be, but we ... have outstanding teachers," she said. "I don't see how we can miss."

Alphia Wills, who has taught for 37 years, also supports the curriculum and said the change is both exciting and refreshing.

"It's like starting all over again," she said.

Elfreda McRae

Jill Goforth
 

Bertha Shields