Portable classroom going on school's front lawn for study hall

More than 100 students now crammed into lecture hall

With no other space available and a growing need to house students for study hall, a portable classroom will be placed on the front law of Kennett High. School officials realize the building may not be aesthetically pleasing, but say they had no alternative."Andy Grigel (building and grounds coordinator) and I looked all over the facility," Jim Hill, director of administrative services, said. "There just wasn't another viable alternative. We looked to kitty-corner it where the other portable classrooms are, but it didn't work. Then we considered running it parallel to the buildings, but it overlapped into the driveway, blocking the road (which the southern school buses use). We even looked at putting it (behind the school gymnasium) next to the greenhouse, but the ground sloped too much. This was the last or best choice. We really had no other options.""We need to solve the study hall issue and this is the best option," School Superintendent Carl Nelson said.The portable, the eighth on site, will be placed near the southern driveway to the school next to the veterans monument. It is a 28-by-52 foot double wide building capable of housing 60 to 80 students. The district is renting the portable for two years for $1,455 per month, including delivery, set up, skirting of the building, and tear down and return at the end of the lease.According to Nelson, the school's lecture hall cannot accommodate the upwards of 110 students there for study hall. When the portable opens later this month 60 to 80 students will move from the lecture hall to it."You can't have 100 students in one room, it's not right," Pat Swett, of the school board, said. "I know the front of the school isn't ideal, but it had to go wherever there was space available and that's all we have left."Board member Dick O'Brien would like to consider other options, but admits there aren't many. "I know we don't need an eyesore like that on the front lawn," he said. "A portable classroom shouldn't be the first thing people see when they drive into the town of Conway... My suggestion would be to close the road between the rear of the school and gym and put it right there on the road."The district currently owns three portable classrooms at Kennett and will complete a lease and purchase on two others in July and then will be renting three others, including the new study hall.When the new high school is built in 2006, Hill is not sure what the district will do with the portables. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," he said. "I know some other school districts try to sell them by sending out mass mailers letting people know they're available."