Frank Elementary portables to get facelift

Portable classrooms to be painted and landscaped by the start of school on Aug. 26

Frank Elementary portable classrooms will be painted and landscaped before school starts Aug. 26.

Frank Elementary portable classrooms will be painted and landscaped before school starts Aug. 26.

Fifth graders at Frank Elementary will have their own complex for the first time when school starts Aug. 26 at Perrysburg.

Frank Elementary portable classrooms

Three portable units will give Frank Elementary six more classrooms behind the main building that will have four, fifth-grade classes,  a classroom for advanced students, and a intervention and music room. 

Fort Meigs Elementary also received two portable units, to provide four more classrooms there.

"We're bubbling over with students," said Brent Swartzmiller, Frank Elementary principal. "Teachers need independent time with students so it is important that we have the ability to respond and have more space. I don't know what we would've done without [the portables]."

Perrysburg schools spent $554,000 for the portables. That included buying the units from the Sylvania School District, and electrical and other work to set them up. That price was less than the $1.02 million it would have cost to purchase new portable classrooms, district officials said.

Perrysburg Superintendent Tom Hosler presented to the Board of Education an alternative to buying and moving the portable classrooms in the future with the district's growth: add a building on the Perrysburg High School campus that would open in 2018 to help resolve the overcrowding issue.

There are some possible downsides to the portable classrooms, including students having to go inside to use the bathrooms.

"There are a lot of things based inside the school, but I think fifth graders will look at is as a novelty having their own complex and area," Mr. Swartzmiller said. "There's always going to be hiccups when you do something for the first time, but we don't know the hiccups until we get going and we will address them and learn on the fly."

The portable classrooms are installed, but still have work to do before school. Later this week they will be landscaped, and next week will have the exteriors painted.

"I've seen the floor model and it looks good. There are a lot of city guidelines, and they want the place to look good," Mr. Swartzmiller said. "I'm excited to have more space and give students the attention they should get."

Contact Matt Thompson at: mthompson@theblade.com, 419-356-8786, or on Twitter at @mthompson25.