Lost River Elementary School Principal Mike Stevenson explains what classes will be taught in four temporary classrooms set to open in January. Tonya Embertons sixth-grade room (top) is crammed with temporary desks and folding chairs to accommodate her 33 pupils. Photo by Clinton Lewis

Lost River Elementary School sixth-grade teacher Tonya Emberton cant wait to get a smaller class. While her classroom can comfortably hold 29 children, Emberton has been teaching 34 pupils for the past school year. We look like sardines, Emberton said. Some of them are as big as me, and Im 5 foot 7 inches. You cant move without hitting peoples desks and knocking over their papers. When I heard that we were getting additional rooms, I was jumping up for joy. The Warren County Board of Education last week advertised for construction bids for three of the four schools it plans to enlarge. Besides Lost River, board members will open bids Dec. 20 for Warren Elementary and Rockfield. The board wont approve bid advertisements for Rich Pond Elementary School until Jan. 28, followed by a bid opening in February, said Willie McElroy, the school districts finance director. The board will pay for the projects using bonds, school Superintendent Dale Brown said. The four schools will receive eight classrooms and larger library and media centers. All four projects will cost an estimated total of $8.5 million to $9 million. Warren Elementary will have its old library turned into four classrooms, a new library constructed in the front of the school and get a new administrative area. Lost River also will receive additional faculty restrooms and two work rooms. The board unanimously approved the projects in October, then decided to start on Warren and Lost River Elementary Schools because they had the greatest need, Brown said. The board then added Rockfield because its floor plans are identical to Warren Elementarys layout. Lost Rivers capacity is between 500 and 600 pupils; it now holds 675 pupils, not including preschool. Similarly, Warren Elementarys pupil population has grown from 615 to 646 pupils. Add to that 41 preschoolers, for a total of 687 pupils. Preschoolers arent included in the numbers presented to the board, since preschool is not a state mandate, Warren Elementary Principal Bea Isable said. But to her, the preschool is worth the extra volume of pupils it creates. Though most of the increases in capacity have been in the kindergarten and primary grades in Warren and Lost River, Lost River also has seen an increase in its sixth-grade class. Brown speculated the increases are due to new home construction and an influx of new county residents. In Warren Elementarys case, Isable believes that peoples mobility has also played a part in the higher numbers. With more people losing their jobs, youre finding lots of family members moving in together, she said. The district has known about the increase for years and has planned accordingly since the 1980s, Brown said. Weve had a pattern of growth for years, Brown said. Weve had a number of families move into Bowling Green and Warren County. This year alone, the school district had more than 175 new students enroll in its system. But Brown said he couldnt specify which school posted the highest increase because of the redistricting to fill Briarwood Elementary School. We feel were still a growing school district, Brown said. We feel that the new additions will help with the overcrowding. Meanwhile, Lost River and Warren Elementary received several portable classrooms to help ease overcrowding. The schools will start using the classrooms when schools resume Jan. 3. Lost River plans to place a sixth-grade, a primary and a kindergarten class in the two trailers that are divided into four classrooms, Principal Mike Stevenson said. Each of the primary, kindergarten and sixth-grade teachers will take between five and nine pupils from their classrooms to fill the three new classes, Stevenson said. Weve already hired the new teachers, and they will start when the students come back from Christmas break. The fourth room might either be a science lab, art class or divide the room between the two functions, Stevenson said. Emberton will lose eight of her children. Though shes sad that they will be in another class, she said she relishes the idea of being able to give her students more much-needed individualized attention. It will be like night and day, Emberton said. Isable plans to use her trailer as a music room, she said. The music teacher has had to go a la carte for a while, Isable said. When hes not using it, the band will use it. They currently have to go to Warren Central High School to practice. Construction on the three schools will start middle to late January . The Rich Pond project will start at the beginning of March. School administrators hope to complete all four projects by fall 2002.