Butler students and faculty say goodbye to former school, gear up for Nelson Academy

CJ Dablo
Staff Writer

Students and faculty at Butler Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School celebrated a special rite of passage this week at their middle school in Signal Hill. When the school bell rang one final time Thursday afternoon and students at Butler snapped shut their weathered textbooks, the kids may have shed a few tears for the school they are leaving behind, but most of them will also look forward to starting a new school year across town.
The students who are finishing the sixth and seventh grade at Butler will start as seventh and eighth graders at the Jessie Elwin Nelson Academy at 1951 Cherry Ave. Incoming sixth graders from all over the district will join these kids, according to Denise “Sparkle” Peterson, the current principal at Butler and the designated principal for Nelson Academy.
The school that is designed to accommodate about 850 students, according to their marketing materials, will feature a number of state-of-the-art features. Peterson said that this fall, the school will have about 750 students.
Spokespeople from the school district and from the Measure K Bond Program confirm that among the new technology highlights, the school will have campus-wide wi-fi access, electronic whiteboards in some classrooms, and most notably, every student will be getting his or her own 16 GB iPad 2 tablet computer.

Peterson said that everyone is excited about the move to Nelson and the new iPads.
“It’s very refreshing to see how the students are eager,” Peterson said in an interview last month at Butler. The principal described a student body at Butler that is already focused on education and thrilled at the prospect of joining a new school. “Most of the kids here don’t know ‘brand-new,'” Peterson added, “to be the first.”
The facility itself is new, but Nelson Academy will also be the first school in the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) to provide every student with an iPad, Peterson confirmed. However, it won’t be the end of books at Nelson.
The principal said students will still have textbooks and even access to a new library on campus. She acknowledged that it will be a challenge to integrate both the textbook and iPad together in the classroom. The teachers began professional development last month to prepare for the change.
“We are not worried about the students using the iPads,” Peterson said. “The students probably will teach us some stuff. We really believe that.”
The cost for the iPads, like the rest of the facilities on campus, is paid entirely through funds available through Measure K, according to Peterson. Voters passed the measure in 2008 which used property tax dollars and funded the construction and improvement of schools in the LBUSD through bonds, according to the website dedicated to Measure K school construction projects.According to Vivien Hao, a spokesperson for the Measure K Bond Program, Nelson Academy’s construction budget is $45 million, a total which also includes furniture, the iPads and other technology costs.

Peterson explained the importance of using the iPad in an academic setting for these students who are already knowledgeable in the latest technology.
“We want them to become more global,” she said. “We want to talk to students in other countries, and the iPad will afford them that opportunity…Active participation will be at a higher level, and they’ll be truly engaged because all students love technology.”
The excitement over the high-tech gadgets and all of the school facilities has spilled out to city officials like Signal Hill Vice Mayor Michael Noll. The vice mayor also serves as a member of the Measure K Citizens Oversight Committee, which reviews the expenditures related to Measure K and reports to the Board of Education, according to the Measure K website. Noll has taken a few tours of the school site during the construction process.
“Then, when I actually had my last tour, I was ready to go back to school and learn,” Noll said in a telephone interview Tuesday. He noted that he was particularly impressed with the science classroom and the multi-purpose gymnasium/auditorium.
Noll recalled that the construction progress on Cherry Avenue had a number of challenges since initial plans were set to build the middle school. The school is located on property that formerly belonged to the former telephone company GTE. According to Noll, the site had toxic material, contaminated soil and old telephone equipment. Noll added that the site has now been certified to be clean.
He said he was impressed at the extent of planning for the future as he emphasized both the academic and construction advances at Nelson.
“It’s a state-of-the-art school,” Noll said. “We’re very lucky to have it at Signal Hill.”
There are small signs of distraction for the students in the final moments before they burst out of their classrooms to revel in their summer break. They have already started to pay tribute to their old middle school. Several slideshow videos that salute Butler are prominently featured on the school’s website.
Peterson described how the kids have shown their excitement and how many have passed by the construction site to sneak a peek at their new school. However, the principal said it was important to keep her kids focused on their academic studies during their final days at Butler.
“And so we need to provide the best education that the students so rightfully deserve no matter where the school is,” Peterson added, “so that’s my firm belief.”
Fall semester at Nelson Academy begins Sept. 5. The school enrollment is already at capacity, and Peterson confirmed that there is a long waiting list.