When going down School Street in Brookline Village, you will no longer look up to see kids running through a sky bridge to get to the Pierce Elementary School playground for recess.
The Pierce School is being rebuilt, and as a result, all students have been relocated to different locations. Kindergarten through 5th grade is now being taught at the Old Lincoln School (OLS), while the 6th through 8th graders are located at a school in Fisher Hill. Amidst the separation, the teachers have adapted in many ways. While the daily functions are different, the teachers have worked at making up for the losses that came with the transition.
8th grade teacher Stephanie Goodman, who has been teaching middle school for seven years, said the transition to the new middle school campus at Fisher Hill offers some advantages for the teachers.
“With our middle school colleagues, it’s nice because we’re all together,” Goodman said. “Before, we were kind of in all different parts [of the school] and now all of us are in the same area, which is nice because we get to have some of those conversations with our colleagues that we didn’t get to have as frequently.”
David Carter, a 3rd grade teacher said that it is not just the separation of buildings that has been an adjustment. The classrooms that were previously more connected due to the open floor plan in the Pierce building have also been separated.
“The biggest change is the fact that we all have classrooms now instead of open spaces. The open spaces really led to a sense of belonging and collaboration among staff,” Carter said. “I really feel that that is missing now. Teachers who I used to communicate with all the time I barely see anymore.”
Carter also said the separation of classes has created a disconnect that became visible in the lack of students visiting past teachers. In OLS, he said he hardly ever sees kids visiting old teachers.
Furthermore, the building the middle schoolers are occupying at Fisher Hill is smaller than the Pierce building, which has brought some logistical and spatial changes for the school.
“We used to have five minutes [in between classes] and now it’s two minutes,” Goodman said. “The kids have less time to talk in the hallways, which is a fun time for them, so they’re probably a little sad to miss some of that socialization.”
With a smaller building, the hallways are inevitably teeming with kids, according to eighth grader Julie Scheer.
“It’s very crowded. It’s very busy, so it’s a little overwhelming, but it’s not terrible,” Scheer said.
Carter said the lack of a large library like that of the old Pierce building creates difficulties.
“In years past, students were allowed to go to the library on a daily basis if they wanted to because it was so close. There were open spaces with tables where students could work in a quiet environment, all within sight of their teachers,” Carter said. “Now, the library is one-tenth of the size and students are only allowed to go one day a week for 45 minutes.”
However, the new campus offers several advantages, including closer proximity among classrooms, multiple cafeterias and access to a nearby field with walking paths, said Goodman.
Yet, according to Goodman, the absence of a gym and a central library, such as the large one Pierce previously had, has posed challenges.
“We don’t have a gym, but we have a workout room and a really nice field,” Goodman said. “The library is kind of interesting—we don’t have what you’d call a traditional one. It’s more like little library nooks, so that’s probably a piece they’re missing.”
While this year at Pierce School is different from the past, the students have enjoyed the variation, according to Scheer.
“We’ve always been a K-8 school,” Scheer said. “Now we kind of get to try two different things. I think it’s cool that we get to do both.”
