Some quick one-liners from Hartland North Elementary School Principal Pat Thome can sum up the difference between his school now and one year ago.
“There’s nobody over 3½ feet tall,” he said. “I’m the only guy who comes to work, and there’s 450 people wanting to give you a hug every day.”
Over the summer, both elementary schools in the Hartland-Lakeside School District transitioned from serving students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade to serving half those grades. North got the students in pre-kindergarten through second grade while Hartland South Elementary School, less than two miles away, now has students in only third through fifth grades.
It’s a structure that other southeastern Wisconsin school districts have studied – most recently the Whitnall School District – but few have adopted. Among the obstacles to such changes are concerns voiced by parents about losing their neighborhood schools and the addition of a transition between school buildings in the middle of a child’s elementary years.