While Lincoln Elementary School’s principal Tom Burski says renovations aren’t a major concern for the school, space availability is of critical concern and needs to be addressed with a school referendum.

Burski said Lincoln’s, 220 E. Sunset, capacity is 275 students. The number currently is about 304 students and growing.

First, inside the foyer of the school adjacent to the administrative offices, academically gifted students have class in an environment Burski described as detrimental to their learning abilities. He said, as is the case anywhere, the main entryway is the site of the most traffic and therefore causes many of the students not to focus on what the teacher is saying.

“Higher level thinking is hard to do when people are constantly walking by,” Burski said.

Students in need of tutoring generally are relegated to desks in the middle of the hallway. Burski said this also is a distracting learning environment for both the children and the teachers.

Because the school has no music room, Burski said the music teacher uses the music-on-a-cart technique in which the teacher stacks all supplies and learning materials on one cart and rolls it from class to class throughout the day.

He said the school has three second grade classrooms this year and only two third grade classrooms, an issue Burski said next year can only be solved if a kindergarten classroom becomes a third grade classroom. Therefore, since Lincoln anticipates about 70 new kindergartners each year, some of these children next year might be forced to attend other schools.

Burski said the only likely method for solving this problem is to first look at a sibling privilege for kindergartners. This would allow the new students to go to Lincoln if they have an older brother or sister currently attending the school. The remaining kindergartners then would be placed in an objective lottery to determine what other children the school could afford to take on. Burski said whoever didn’t fall into the sibling privilege category or the lottery would have to attend kindergarten at another school.

“It’s difficult for the parents to wonder if they’re kids are going to attend here or not,” Burski said. “So in essence, a family without any other kids who lives across the street from here may have to go to another school for a year.”

Burski said a good example of the school’s overcrowding issue is the Multi-Purpose Room, where there is0 speech service, reading improvement, transitional program, the special education teacher, the social worker and the music teacher. Separating the Multi-Purpose Room from the kindergarten classroom is a transportable wall no more than 6 feet high that allows sound to filter from one side to the other with regularity.

Burski said the school’s library, originally the Music Room, serves as only a checkout and book depository for students. Burski said there are no tables or computers within the library for the students to use.

With a staff of 35 to 38 at the school, the staff break room only can accommodate 15 to 20, and thus, Burski said, this forces a good deal of teachers to eat in classrooms.

With a successful referendum, most of the proposed $4,443,715 would go toward a brand new extension to the school that would provide three new classrooms to accommodate the proposed transition of moving fifth graders to the elementary level. Also included would be new administration offices, a library, a gymnasium and a music room. Through this addition, two more classrooms also would be created inside the existing school.

Burski said between the new library and administrative offices would be a new main entryway that would be much more easily accessible. Presently, the parking lot sits on the school’s northeast side while the main entryway is on the west side.

Transitional programs, reading improvement, and the social worker would move to more private settings inside the new addition with the new gymnasium meeting other multi-purpose needs.

Burski said the proposed music/strings room within the new addition would provide children a better environment in which to learn. Currently, they are taking lessons in a storage closet adjacent to the boiler room.

Burski said while overcrowding has been of great frustration, his staff has been doing a great job of maximizing the school’s capabilities to provide the children with the best learning environment possible.

“I give a lot of credit to the staff for doing a great job accommodating to such crunch issues,” Burski said. “They’ve made lots of sacrifices for the kids in this community.”