Gehringer Elementary looks goodGehringer Elementary looks goodNovember 7, 2003
With Gehringer Elementary School being at the outskirts Oakley and tucked into its little cul de sac, it is easy to miss what is going on over there. Sure, the reports of the new stoplight that has been in the planning stages for the last couple years brings an occasional story in the local papers, but what is happening on the inside is just as newsworthy.
For example, last week I had the opportunity to visit the campus during the school's annual Fall Harvest Festival activities. It was incredible to see all of the changes I have missed by not being there in the past several months.
First of all the school's decorations for the festival were awesome. The kids and parents involved in the PTA went all out by making pumpkin scarecrows dressed in different themes.
"The creativity was unbelievable," said Christine Walters, Gehringer School Principal. "About three-quarters of the classrooms participated in the program and that was just awesome."
The idea behind the project was for the students in each classroom to build a scarecrow in a different theme. One theme was a fiesta, another a bumblebee with one big bee and 20 smaller bees, another was an adult and children walking through a park.
I have to say that my favorite was one from a first-grade class that used reading as a theme and had a teacher reading a book to a group of smaller child-size scarecrows. They all did a fabulous job, according to Walters. Each classroom that participated had a popcorn party to celebrate all of their hard work.
Other activities that day included a costume parade. While many of the younger students dressed in costumes of their favorite cartoon characters, the older students dressed as the historical figures they were required to do a book report on.
Putting together programs like this is just one of the many things that has changed the outlook of a once older-looking school to something bright and cheery, because even without the decorations from the Fall Harvest Festival and pumpkin patch the school is looking terrific.
Walters said that over the past few months the school has been getting a facelift. The school district has put in a new fifth-grade wing on the campus with another wing that includes a bank of computers. There has also been a new kindergarten wing, and a new office and teachers lounge.
Add to that extensions on landscaping and paving in the front of the school and it almost looks like a whole new school. "The comments from the parents have been that the school looks great," Walters said.
She also said that the school wouldn't look as nice without the help of a group of students called the Green Team. These kids spend their lunch time cleaning up the campus and at the end of each week get free ice cream for their efforts, and after four weeks lunch with the principal.
Walters said that there is a fabulous group of students at the school as well. It was incredible to hear that Gehringer has 815 students and runs on a modified traditional schedule. That's more students than both Vintage Parkway and Laurel School have, where they run on a year-round schedule.
Walters is looking forward to the activities coming up over the next few months at the school as well. On Nov. 12 a school spirit day is planned where kids will dress up as their favorite famous person. Nov. 25 is Pioneer Day when the first graders will have fun studying their social studies themes with arts and crafts. Dec. 11 is scheduled to be kindergarten craft day. The Community Winter Social is planned for Dec. 12, and the second graders will host a Winter Fling with poetry and hot chocolate on Dec. 18. "We couldn't do all this without the help of our parents," Walters said. "We love our parents."
Roni Gehlke's column on life in Oakley appears each week in the Brentwood News.
Distributed by the Contra Costa Times