Last year GHES rented a portion of the former hospital, while another local business was located in the clinic portion of the building. However, the business relocated and the school will rent out a portion of the clinic to house both the second and third grade classroom computer lab, and library. In addition, the school built a cafeteria and hired five new teachers to add to the staff. All of the changes has school officials excited about the upcoming school year. "We are looking forward to the second year," said Parsons. "The staff is excited and I think the kids are excited to come back." Technology Aside from the 40 new computers purchased for the computer lab and classrooms, each room has been equipped with a SMART Board. Each SMART Board is a modern day version of a dry erase board, featuring an interactive touch screen which shows a computer desktop, projector or whatever is plugged into the board. Teachers can write on the screen with special markers which can be erased like they would on a normal dry erase board. When hooked up to a computer, teachers can use their hands as a mouse to navigate from screen to screen. For example, a teacher could use google maps to show the United States of America, touch Minnesota, and show an up close look of Minnesota, zoom in more and take an up close look at the terrain of Starbuck and the surrounding area. Another bonus is teachers can play movies on the computer and project them on the SMART Board. The movie could be paused and the teacher can draw on the SMART Board with the special pens over the paused picture.

Pod classes Rather than sitting in the same classroom for the entire day, students at GHES will be changing classrooms for a number of core classes this year as teachers in grades 4-6 implement a pod class system. The pod system will allow teachers to have one core subject of concentration, for instance math, science, and reading, and teach all students the same subject matter. Parsons said the pod system will help the school concentrate on the core subjects the students will be tested on for the MCA tests, and ensures, "they can get the core classes for equal time everyday," said Parsons. According to Parsons, the pod system was something that was popular at the Starbuck Elementary School when she was a science teacher.

Class sizes This year each grade level will be divided at GHES. Last year both the second and third grade and the fifth and sixth grade were combined into two larger classes. Class sizes range from 19 students in kindergarten, first grade, and fifth grade to just six students in sixth grade. Class sizes break down like such: kindergarten 19, first grade 19, second grade 15, third grade 10, fourth grade 11, fifth grade 19, and sixth grade six. Parsons also noted, even before the 2008-2009 school year has begun, three students have registered for kindergarten for the 2009-2010 school year.

Summer vacation is over for area students who returned to school bright and early Tuesday morning. Rain and cooler temperatures greeted students on their first day, but didn't dampen their spirit as smiles were seen across many of the students faces. Pictured above: Students ran inside to get out of the rain at Glacial Hills Elementary School on Tuesday morning. Photo by Chad Koenen