Friends Meeting School to grow

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Friends Meeting School to grow

by Katherine Mullen | Staff Writer

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Bill Ryan⁄The Gazette

The Friends Meeting School in Ijamsville which educates students between 3 and 14 years old, will add 20,000 square feet to accomodate a gym, performing arts center and classroom space.

Ijamsville’s Friends Meeting School will nearly double in size by next year.

The private Quaker school is planning a 20,000 square-foot addition that will accommodate a full-size gym, performing arts center and classroom space. Last week, school officials signed a contract with construction company Parker, Cade and Large to begin the design phase.

According to school head Annette Breiling, the addition will cost $2 million and is slated for a 2008 completion date.

The school now educates 120 students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grades. Established in 1998, it began with 13 students, Breiling said.

Students at Friends Meeting School, who range from 3 to 14 years old, share nine classrooms, Breiling said.

Uriel Orellana, a Spanish teacher, said he shares classroom space with the science lab and much of his extra teaching material is stashed away in storage.

Orellana said the new building would be a ‘‘positive change” for him and his students. Having his own classroom would allow Orellana to set up a permanent language lab, he said.

This year, students in fifth through eighth grades moved to portable classrooms to make room in the main buildings for third- and fourth-graders, Breiling said.

The addition would give equal classroom space to all grades, Breiling said. Expanded gym space will also allow the school to offer more sports and create additional office space and storage for staff. Plans for the new building would also allow future space for high school grade levels, Breiling said.

Expanding the school to include high school has always been a part of the Friends Meeting School’s vision, she said.

Kelly Schwartz, Friends Parent Organization leader, said she looks forward to the possibility. Her daughter attends the second grade there.

‘‘I really think that if they got the same quality of teachers there that that’s where I would like Alex to go [to high school],” Schwartz said.