The Oregonian: Former Humboldt families adjust to their new school at Boise-Eliot
Link to article on Oregonlive.com website.
Article Preview: As Halimo Sharif stood with her son, Adam Adan, outside Boise-Eliot school, she couldn’t help but think about the now-closed Humboldt School that Adan used to attend.
“We liked our old school,” Sharif said.
But Adan, 7, wasn’t so preoccupied with the past: he was looking forward to a school so big that it almost looked like a high school to him. “I’ll get new friends,” he said.
As the doors opened for the first time this morning, Boise-Eliot was dealing with some big changes. The school is anticipating about 165 students transferring in from Humboldt, which went through a short and contentious closure process earlier this year.
There are also 12 new staff members, eight of whom also came from the closed school.
On Wednesday, parents were still ruminating on the closing. “I didn’t really agree with the school’s closing, but I had to get him into a class,” parent Myron Carter said, as he waited with his son Harlem outside the school.
But Carter also said he wasn’t worried -- he had heard Boise-Eliot was a good school. “I had little cousins that went to this school, so that made me feel better.”
For his part, Harlem said he felt good about his new building.
Principal Molly Chun said the school has been eager to help embrace the new Humboldt students and give them a smooth transition. She wants to reserve the first few days for community building, she said.
Chun said that’s why the school chose a staggered start for students: on the first day, only students with last names from A through K will arrive, and the rest of the students will arrive on Thursday. The entire school arrives on Friday.
“We’re really thinking hard and figuring out how to help our community become one community,” Chun said.
