Scenes of space murals and children walking to class greet those entering Fairview Elementary on the east side of Columbus.
Principal Monte Johnson has been at the helm since the school year began, and she is set on creating a culture that allows students to thrive. While giving the Columbus Municipal School District board members a tour of the school, she talked about how a clean environment is conducive to learning.
“You can’t learn in chaos,” Johnson said. “When I came here, we had teachers sharing classrooms. (Individualized Education Program) students were in the same class as the gifted education kids, and you couldn’t even walk in some rooms, but I got to work.”
Just last week, Johnson moved the fifth-grade science teacher to the upper elementary hallway as the class was previously in the lower elementary hallway which serves pre-kindergarten through first-grade students. She said now students don’t have to spend as much time walking to the class and can spend that time learning.
The CMSD board’s visit to Fairview was part of its tour of the district that began in November at Columbus Middle School. Trustees’ next stop will be Sale Elementary in February. Public Information Officer Mary Pollitz said the visits are part of an initiative Interim Superintendent Dennis Dupree started when he joined the district in September.
Dupree said he started the school visits to replace board review meetings, and the visits allow to see firsthand how the administrators, students and other district employees are doing inside the schools.
During the visits, the board has lunch from the schools’ cafeterias, establishes a quorum (meaning the meetings are open to the public), hears a presentation regarding goals from each principal and goes on a school tour.
Board president Yvonne Cox said these visits are important because it allows the board to have a presence in the school and see firsthand how things are going.
“To me it was phenomenal because it met all of my expectations,” Cox said of Wednesday’s visit to Fairview. “When (Johnson) presented to us, she elaborated in detail about the culture and climate of the school, which included students, parents, teachers. Also the way the kids accept her — the kids are crazy about their principal, and the kids were comfortable talking to us. That means that they’re not being yelled at by adults and there is respect. To me, the culture and climate of this school is conducive to learning.”
Upon walking into the school, district officials were greeted by fifth-graders Mekhi Bush and Aiden Williams, two Falcon Elite students.
Johnson said the “Falcon Elite” are students who scored proficient or advanced on their state tests.
They were also gifted holiday crafts from pre-k students and letters from fifth-graders with the topic of what the students think about Fairview. One student Jakobe Sherrod said he loves Fairview, but he wishes there was more recess and a football team so students didn’t have to wait to play until middle school.
After Johnson’s presentation on Fairview’s goals for the remainder of the school year, she led a small group on a tour which included stopping by a kindergarten classroom, a pre-k class and a first grade math class.
In Roselynn Rainey’s pre-k class, board members Cox, Cynthia Brown and Josie Shumake matched their holiday craft to the student who created it and thanked them. They also heard from Kentrail Turner, who told them he wanted a “baby dog” as a class pet.
Johnson, who was an assistant principal at the high school before coming to Fairview, said she likes the visits the board and district administrators are doing around the district, and she welcomes anyone who wants to help with the students’ growth.
“You want people to come into the building and get a feel of the atmosphere and learning environment,” Johnson said. “You want them to see what it feels like to go to school here, to work here. I think it’s an awesome experience, and I was really excited about it.”
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