Polk Students Transition to Taylor Elementary

By Addison Speck, Reporter

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By KCRG Intern

Story Created: Jul 26, 2012 at 8:18 PM CDT

Story Updated: Jul 27, 2012 at 12:05 AM CDT

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - It's back to the books. Thursday was the first day of school at Taylor Elementary in Cedar Rapids. Their year-round calendar puts students back in the classroom about a month before most.

This year, some new faces will be walking the hallways. In May, Polk Elementary closed for good, dispersing its students throughout the district. About 30 of them came to Taylor and on Tuesday, some of those students said so far, so good. "There is a lot of things in common. But at Polk we didn't have elevators, here we do," said Ronisha Techau, a 4th Grader who used to go to Polk. "I like my teachers and like my friends," added Hayley Bisson, a 4th Grader who also came from Polk.

The additional Polk students make for the highest enrollment at Taylor in about ten years. On Thursday, teachers did all they could to help them feel at home. "We really paid a lot of attention to team building and class building activities. We want all of our students to really feel welcome and part of our school culture and proud to be a Taylor Tiger," said Brian Christoffersen, the Principal at Taylor.

Christoffersen said Thursday was full of excitement. "When you think back on your own childhood you can't think of too many more exciting things that occur than the first day of school," he said. Christoffersen explained that families love the year-round calendar because it shortens summer down to 7 or 8 weeks and helps keep students fresh. He said that's likely what brought some Polk students to Taylor.

With just one day in the books, students seemed excited to come back again. Ready for a new school year with new friends and new things to learn. "You get to learn different things that you have never learned before, like in social studies," said Kayla Jefferson, a 4th Grader at Taylor.

Now that Polk is closed, Taylor is the only Cedar Rapids Elementary School on a year-round calendar.

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