Riverview School gets major face lift

Ken Johnston
Editor

After nearly 30 years it was time for a face lift. That was what the Rainy River District Board of Education thought with regards to Riverview Elementary School in Rainy River.

Acting principal Terry Ogden said the planning for the face lift began about two years ago. School council members, staff and the board of ed. worked together to make improvements to the school.

When it opened in 1971 a part of the school known as the Open Area was thought to be revolutionary in nature. That same concept was used at West Fort High School and seemed to be trendy.

However after a number of years involving changes in how education is delivered the Open Area became more of a problem than a benefit.

Ogden said several years ago West Fort built walls in its open area and now that has happened at Riverview. Walls have been built between the three rooms that were only divided by curtains at one time and eventually office dividers. However the old dividers did not reduce the sound from one room to another which often served as a distraction between classes.

Eventually the uselessness of the noisey Open Area saw it reduced to a computer lab and one regular class room. Now there are two rooms for grades 7 and 8 and grades 1 & 2.

Teacher Deb Wagner said she has finally seen the light after 16 years of teaching in a room without windows. “It is so cheerie and bright and the fresh air is great,” said Wagner. The only down side to getting a new room for her was this was the second year in a row that she had to go through packing up and unpacking her room. Last year her room was emptied so that new flooring and painting could be installed and done.

But she admits the new space more than makes up for it.

Just about all the rooms in the school have had their carpets removed and commercial tile flooring has been installed.

Ogden said that the last bit of carpet will be gone next year. The reason for pulling the rug out from under the students is attached mostly to health reasons. “We couldn’t tell if they (carpets) were really clean. With the tile we can see that and it can be buffed up on a regular basis to look good,” said Ogden.

A new resource centre has been created in the center of the school where there are no windows. That virtually eliminates glare problems for the computers in the lab. The computer lab is located where the library was the past few years, but it is joined to new library which ironically is located where it was when the school first opened. A door between the rooms has been added as has a window so that librarian Rose Tetu can keep an eye on students in both the lab and library.

The gym equipment storage room has been relocated from the opposite side of the school to right across the hall from the gym. That is something that Ogden says makes a lot of sense. The old equipment room will house the custodial staff’s equipment.

In addition to removing the last of the carpet next year the office and staff room will be overhauled.