Students at Mary Dryden Memorial School showed no sign of worry at their new location, according to their principal
This is what the Mary A. Dryden School in Springfield looked like last Wednesday after a tornado blew through sections of the city.SPRINGFIELD – The principal of Mary A. Dryden Memorial School said her students and staff, having lost their school for the remainder of this year due to last Wednesday’s tornado, received a warm welcome at their new home.
“The day has gone very smoothly,” Dryden Principal Diane Brouillard said Monday morning. “The transition for my students couldn’t be better.”
Dryden, located at 190 Surrey Road, and its 254 students in Grades K-5, moved to the nearby Frederick Harris School, and will share the building until June 21.
Dryden students will stay until June 23, needing to stay the extra days because they were already displaced this past winter by heavy snow on the roof that had to be removed, officials said.
Harris School Principal Shannon M. Collins, agreed with Brouillard that the first day was going smoothly.
“Everyone has risen to the occasion,” Collins said. “It’s a lesson for the kids on what you do in times of need to help your neighbors. They truly are our school neighbors.”
The school administration sent counselors from other schools to help children with any issues either related to moving to a new school or due to tornado damage that may have occurred at their own homes.
Harris was able to combine some of their own smaller classes, and free up full classrooms to the newly arriving students from Dryden.
Students also had to relocate from Elias Brookings Middle School on Hancock Street due to tornado damage that has closed that school for the remainder of the year. The students in Grades K-2 were transferred to Boland School and students in Grades 3, 4, and 5 were transferred to Rebecca Johnson School.
Collins said there were “lots of hands on deck” at all the entrances at Harris to welcome the Dryden students, and they were all sent initially to the gymnasium. There, Brouillard spoke with them and directed them to their new classrooms after breakfast.
‘I basically told them it would be nothing different — a different room, the rest the same,” Brouillard said. “The kids have not shown any worry at all.”
Both principals said it was not overly crowded Monday. Harris has 565 students in Grades K-5. The pre-schools from both schools has been closed for the year to ease any crowding, they said.