Nevada Benton Elementary School Heating System Down
By: Melanie Huonker
Updated: January 24, 2013
NEVADA, MO.--- Mrs.Cussimanio has more students in her classroom than usual today. She's reading to her 22 1st grade students and 14 2nd graders from Benton Elementary.
"Today's has been a very interesting day with combining the 2nd grade classes," states Karen Cussimanio, First Grade Teacher.
She and another teacher are sharing a classroom.
"We have just mainly carried on our regular curriculum and just let them join in," says Cussimanio.
The combined class was due to a broken heating system at Benton Elementary. Nearly 200 2nd graders from Benton attended class today with nearly 400 kindergarten and 1st grade students at Bryan Elementary.
"We got word late yesterday afternoon that our boiler system that heats the building was down and was going to need to be shut down for a couple days for repairs," states Dr. David Stephens, Superintendent.
Instead of canceling class, school leaders decided to move the students and staff. The superintendent says it was an effort to continue school lessons and help parents.
"For those parents to have to find child care for their kids at the last minute would have been an incredible burden for them. So, we have that responsibility to support them as well," says Dr. Stephens.
Cussimanio will teach to a bigger classroom again tomorrow. She says the 2nd graders are having fun revisiting their old school and playing a little bit of teacher themselves.
"They did all these things last year as well. They've been able to kind of do some peer tutoring with them so the 1st graders can learn some new things," says Cussimanio.
School leaders expect the heating to be be fixed by Monday. Until then, Benton students will attend class at Bryan Elementary.
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