Wilder Elementary is latest Springfield school to get bond-funded storm shelter gym

This week, Wilder Elementary Principal Andrea Hangen led what she described as the "most exciting storm drill that will ever happen."

At the appointed time, classroom teachers led 325 students through the halls to the northeastern part of the building. There, they entered the new gym — which doubles as a storm shelter — for the first time.

"We were able to come together as a school family in here for the first time," she said Thursday. "We had a scheduled storm drill the first day that we could be in here. It went fantastic."

Hangen spoke Tuesday at the second of four back-to-back ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new elementary gym storm shelters, all paid for by the $220 million bond issue approved in April 2023 .

The ceremony for Mann was in late August. Watkins and Pittman were up next. Construction of storm shelter gyms at Cowden and Holland is ongoing.

Wilder was a pivotal project because the campus will also soon add classrooms to absorb roughly half the elementary students zoned to attend Pershing, a K-8 campus that will be transformed into a middle school. The other half will go to Field Elementary.

Hangen said plans for the new classroom wing call for it be built on the southern part of the Wilder campus.

Five members of the Springfield school board voted Aug. 20 to approve architectural services for the Pershing project. Esterly Schneider & Associates is expected to receive $2.3 million for design and related work related to the renovation, partial demolition and the new construction. Board member Kelly Byrne abstained from the vote and Steve Makoski was absent.

At the Tuesday evening event at Wilder, Superintendent Grenita Lathan repeatedly thanked voters for their support of the bond issue.

"It is not getting old to hold ribbon cuttings for our new gyms," she said after the event. "We're so excited. Today we are here at Wilder Elementary School and we have two additional ones coming online, one this week and one in three weeks."

Lathan added: "I want to say 'Thank you' again to the Springfield community."

"This helps. It extends the learning space for our students and our teachers. They have so much more room for them to be able to move around. You don't have a teacher on a cart or classes in the hallway," she said. "This is so exciting and so needed for Wilder Elementary."

Board members Danielle Kincaid, Maryam Mohammadkhani, Susan Provance and Shurita Thomas-Tate packed into the Wilder gym along with parents, teachers, neighbors and community members.

As board president, Kincaid spoke about the district's commitment to providing safe, quality learning spaces. "It's truly a privilege to be involved in celebrations like this."

She said successful passage of the bond required a lot of people "working behind the scenes" including members of the fundraising group Friends of SPS and the volunteers who served on the Community Task Force on Facilities, which recommended projects for the 2019 and 2023 bond issues.

In the audience was Bridget Dierks, vice president of community impact at the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. A parent and community volunteer, she and David Hall co-chaired the task force that led to both bond issues.

Dierks has attended many of the groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies but the Wilder one stood out.

"This one is very special to me because my son goes here," she said of the fourth-grader. "This is the first time my son has directly benefited from one of the bond projects."

She noted the new elementary gyms add critical space in older buildings that tended to have one common space used for the cafeteria, gymnasium and auditorium. "We problem-solved."

Hangen, who became principal at Wilder this year after serving in a leadership spot at Westport, said the new gym will improve scheduling.

The Wilder gym, clad in the green school color, also includes a stage that will be used for music classes.

"We used to have to share the multipurpose room, what some people call a 'cafegymatorium.' We were able to extend our 'specials' time so all of our teachers have a common, collaborative plan time every single day, which really allows them to plan together and to look at data and plan interventions for students," Hangen said of the "specials" classes, which typically include physical education, music, and art.

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"It has also allowed us to use our cafeteria for other things and not have to worry about planning around lunch and all of the (activities) sharing that one space."

In addition to final safety and security updates throughout the district, other bond-funded projects are still in progress. They include the Pershing project and new Reed and Pipkin middle schools. The ground has not yet broke on Pershing or Pipkin.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Wilder Elementary is latest Springfield school to get bond-funded storm shelter gym