Friday, April 07, 2000
Kids help school buy curtain
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ELMWOOD PLACE — Teachers, administrators, parents, businesses, neighbors and students answered a curtain call this spring at Elmwood Place Elementary School.
The stage curtains in the gymnasium took a beating April 3, 1974, when a tornado struck the Mill Creek Valley village, lifting the roof off the school.
The curtains this year turned 37 years old.
“We just really needed new stage curtains. They were tattered and torn and had big rips in them three-quarters of the way down. Because you could see the feet and legs of children waiting to come on stage, we had to staple garbage bags to the bottom of the curtains,” said Jeanne LeBlond of Madeira, a first-grade teacher who also directs the sixth-grade play.
That would be Oz this year at 7 p.m. on May 11 — with the new curtains.
“Our school district budget is such that we do not have any money for major improvements,” Principal John Estep said. Can you believe curtains cost $4,200 — and, that's just with cleaning and refurbishing the main one? We are looking at a tight financial time in the district since Procter & Gamble took out a building that brought us about $2 million annually (in taxes). ... We are looking at a 10 percent budget cut.”
After Mr. Estep took over this year as principal of the school of 365 students, Ms. LeBlond approached him about the curtains.
“The stage is something that benefits all of our students from kindergarten to our sixth-graders. The school united,” Mr. Estep said.
About 40 people — members of the school staff from teachers to administrators — along with parents and friends worked several weekends at Kings Island, which funds nonprofit organizations in return for work. They raised about $1,800.
“Then I sent letters out to our businesses here and they came through with about $2,900 — more than we needed,” Mr. Estep said.
“We used the surplus money for some much-needed new computer tables in our media center — something else that benefits all of our students,” he said.
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