Spring Creek Elementary Principal Phil Iannaroni, kneeling, paints inside a hallway of the school along with Clyde Whisenant, left,, Laura Mathis and Steve Sullivan of the East Ridge Council of the Chamber of Commerce, Saturday morning.
More than two dozen volunteers chipped in Saturday morning to give Spring Creek Elementary School a spring cleaning.
Well, it was a little more involved than just taking some Mr. Clean to the floors and counters, as parents, teachers, volunteers from the East Ridge Council of the Chamber of Commerce and students from across the county applied a fresh coat of paint to the lower sections of the corridors in the school that was built in 1993.
“We love making it clean for our babies,” said Tammy Fisher, the school’s music teacher. “We had the kids involved yesterday sprucing things up. It’s an ‘everybody’ effort.”
Principal Phil Iannaroni, affectionately referred to as “Mr. I,” said this is the first year for an intensive effort to put a new shine on the school. The administration, he said, is focusing on making Spring Creek a “community centered school.”
“We’ve got a part-time family partnership coordinator (Angela Clark), which is a new position,” Mr. I said. “It’s allowed more people to get involved.”
This particular effort drew Mayor Brent Lambert, an alumnus of Spring Creek, along with a contingent of civic-minded folk from the chamber, like Steve Sullivan, Colleen Combs and Jackie Yates. Clyde Whisenant, a professional painter, was “supervising” the project.
In addition, Mr. I said that 30 students from the Red Bank area were made aware of the effort via Facebook.
“We’ve had a great turnout,” he said.
The big volunteer turnout allowed the folks to accomplish in half a day what was anticipated to take eight hours.
Spring Creek Elementary was originally built on the site in 1952, Mr. I said, as he recounted the names of half a dozen former principals. The building that is home to 700 students from kindergarten to fifth grade now, was built in 1993. Mr. I said the school is on the Hamilton County Board of Education’s list for possible building expansion. The capacity of the school is 600, administrators said, and to provide for the overflow of students two portable buildings have been erected on the east side of the facility that supply four additional classrooms.
Mr. Iannaroni, a native of New York, said he has been Spring Creek’s principal for three years and in administration in Hamilton County Schools for 15 years. His enthusiasm for the school and its progress is infectious.
He stood in the school’s cafeteria and reflected with Mayor Lambert on the school’s history. Lambert said he attended the school when it was making a transition in mascots from the Spring Creek Pirates to the Spring Creek Eagles. During his tenure, Lambert said the “gym” was an asphalt basketball court outside the school.
Mr. I said that the school no longer has a gym, although basketball goals are mounted inside the cavernous cafeteria. There is no basketball team, but the school with a faculty of 60 teachers offers music and art classes and each student has a computer _ something of which he is exceedingly proud.
Upcoming events at the school include a spring carnival.
Colleen Combs, left, with the East Ridge Council of the Chamber of Commerce, paints the hallway of Spring Creek Elementary alongside her daughter, Lucy, right, and Jackie Yates, also a volunteer from the chamber.
