HATFIELD – I have lived down the street from Hatfield Elementary school almost my entire life. I can remember playing on the playground when I had just learned to walk, playing t-ball in preschool on the adjacent fields, and starting Kindergarten there in 2002. For the next 7 years, Hatfield was my home, and even though I graduated and moved on, the lessons I learned at Hatfield are still a big part of my life, and I am not the only one. Every student that walked through those front doors learned the school motto, Respect and Responsibility, a trait that is still being taught to students today and embodied by the staff. Education is priority, but shaping young minds into quality people goes hand in hand, and Hatfield is truly a timeless wonder.

However, the school building itself had become outdated. Hatfield Elementary was built in 1970, with few renovations ever taking place during its lifespan. It was one of the last schools in the district to be renovated, with leaky ceilings, windows that refused to open, and a HVAC system that was a daily problem for the main office. Hatfield was in need of a facelift, and finally, it was placed at the front of the line with the damage dealt two years ago by Hurricane Sandy. Administrators, staff, parents, and students rejoiced, but the process was much more complicated than that sounds.

There is so much that is unique about Hatfield, from the staff to the students, but the biggest, in literal and actual terms, is its design; Hatfield Elementary School is round, one of the last of its kind in the state. Because Hatfield’s design is round, students could not be moved or separated from construction in a safe manner, so the entire school has been moved to Pennfield Middle School, where they are currently occupying the modular portion of the middle school, as well as newly constructed modular facilities added on this summer.

For anyone who has driven by Pennfield recently, you may notice the growth off the back that looks out of place. The first time I drove by, my passenger said it looked like they added ranch homes to the back and threw a playground on the baseball diamond. However, the modular facilities are so much more than can be pictured inside. They look new and big, with a comfortable size and air inside. They are not quickly built shanties, but rather high quality and efficient structures.

“We added 18 modular buildings which equated to 21 additional classrooms. They are full size classrooms with air conditioning, some of the rooms have carpeting, some of the rooms have tile and they are really nice,” said North Penn School District Facilities Director, Tom Schneider. “They were connected to the existing modulars, which have the Hatfield Office, the nurses office, the music room, the art room, basically an entire Elementary School in modular facilities.”

The construction will be extending both the library and the main office, as well as installing a new front awning and extending the parking lot. The interior will also be improved upon, with the health suite and main office undergoing major improvements, the cafeteria and kitchen getting improved appliances, and installing new security, plumbing, energy, and lighting systems. Anyone who has driven by Hatfield Elementary would notice the fenced off skeleton of what was originally a school, but construction is right on schedule, according to Schneider.

“The contractors at this point have just about completed all demolition in the building. There is still some to be done, but they are right on schedule,” said Schneider. “An addition on the side of the building to house an emergency generator has been started. They took down the front bus canopy, and a large addition will be built in that front portion of the building to house and expand the office and the library. At this point, interior walls are being built, electrics are going in and site work is starting, drainage systems and storm water piping and things like that have started. It is progressing well, the project is progressing very well.”

The process of packing up the entire school was the first step for staff at Hatfield. Everything had to be packed by June 20th of last school year which, because of the extended school year as a result of snow days, was while school was still in session. Hatfield teachers were boxing up materials whiled students were still in their desks. The support staff then helped with the movement and placing of materials at Pennfield. A move of this size obviously cannot come without its challenges, and most difficulties had to be handled as the process progressed because it was the first of its kind in the district, and workers had to move quickly and efficiently to get the job done.

“North Penn has never actually moved an entire school before so we had to start from scratch,” said Head Custodian at Hatfield, Christina Hazzard. “Everything in the school had to packed and moved to the temporary Hatfield. The staff was asked to pack all items in their classrooms, as much as possible. They did an amazing job and without their organization we would not have been able to pull this off and it go so smooth.”

One of the biggest problems that the support staff faced during the move was taking all of the school supplies and materials that were in the original school and moving them to the temporary facility. As anyone who has ever been to Hatfield Elementary knows, the school has two floors, and coupled with the library, the amount of materials that needed to be moved was too great to get out of the school through the front door. The support staff faced this challenge head on, again adapting and finding an effective solution.

“Once all their items were packed they had to be placed on Pallets, then moved onto trucks waiting outside. The department came up with the idea of removing a large window from the second floor library so the skids could be removed through it and brought down by a lull. Every single pallet on the second floor had to be brought through the window and downstairs.” said Hazzard. “As time went on, we developed a system and, when need be, we came up with ideas on the fly.”

While construction is still currently in process, the school year is underway, and Hatfield Elementary is functioning just like it used to, with the same vitality and quality as the old Hatfield. The staff and students have made the modular facilities in Pennfield Middle School their home, continuing to further education while adapting to changes. The transition has not been seamless, but relatively smooth. Dr. D’Ana Waters, the principal of Hatfield, has dealt with the intricacies and challenges of the transition, yet has been very pleased with the transition.

“I think the transition for the most part has been pretty seemless, other than times when we have to move a lot of students like our lunch, because we’re serving all our students within an hour, which is very different for us, and also dismissal, we’ve tweaked that a little bit, because we have a lot of kids who are now walkers or car riders who maybe weren’t before or vice versa,” said Waters. “We’ve had to continuously make that better, fine tuning those two things, but everything else has been pretty much the same.”

Security and scheduling were prioritized in the move, and Dr. Waters held meetings with the Principal of Pennfield, Dr. Barbara Galloway, last year on multiple occasions.

“Pennfield’s principal and Dr. Waters had to sit down numerous times to try to figure out when we could go over for library and lunch so that the middle schoolers would be in class,” said Secretary Deborah Mason. “That was a lot.”

“We wanted to make sure that (Pennfield students) were not in the hallways at the same time because we really wanted to make sure that we were keeping our kids as safe as possible,” added Waters. “The kids are never in the building without a staff member, and the teachers use swipe cards to get in and out of the mods and Pennfield. The doors are locked to the mods during school hours, to prevent the middle school and our students getting mixed together. The raptor system is still in place, and everything has been planned so they move into Pennfield when they are in class. And that was something that we wanted the parents to know, safety comes first, and we planned accordingly in the meetings leading up to the move.”

There is a lot to miss amidst all the change, for no matter how well the new modular facilities are, they are not the same as Hatfield. Not worse, just different. But all of the teachers and students lament the distance between the library and the gym, and more importantly, their new gym teacher and their librarian, Mrs. Lori-Ann Keenan, who, after years of being centralized in a circular school, is now a far walk trek from the student body.

“That is one thing I have heard the most, is they can’t come back and forth to the library,” said Keenan. “And we’ve had to cut back the circulation because we could not bring all over in the move. I kind of knew what I was getting into here. So much stuff had to go into storage, and they mapped out our space, which had to be very limited.”

The new Hatfield Library will be getting pushed out and the layout will be flipped, with bathrooms being installed nearby. There will also be much more technology, with new computers and smart boards on each side of the library, making technology more accessible and useful in education. With this better future in mind, Keenan has currently prioritized her students this year at Pennfield, doing whatever she can to fulfill their literary wants and needs.

“The other libraries in the district have been very helpful, if we need books, I can borrow it from their library. I was pretty diligent about bringing over the books that the teachers would need and the students would like.”
The kids in the school, through all the change, have been the driving force for all the positivity. Walking through the halls during dismissal, there are no upset looks or loud cries of displeasure, but an air of happiness and joy that radiates throughout the building, enhanced with every smile on a students face.

“The kids love it. They’ve been asking questions like ‘Can we stay here forever? Why do we have to go back?’” said Guidance Counselor Kim Bainbridge, who has put her efforts toward making sure the students are happy and excited for learning. “And I’ve told them keep in mind we’re not going back to the old Hatfield, it’ll be new and exciting. But the kids have been extremely excited, and I have heard nothing negative, not one thing.”

The attitudes of the staff and students as a whole are phenomenal when considering the circumstances of this year. Uprooting an entire school could have been a disaster, but has turned into just another year at Hatfield. The attitudes are most likely a result of an eye towards the future, for there is a lot of excitement for the new and improved school. When asked what they were looking forward to, each staff member stressed improved facilities and the positive effects on the students’ education.

Mrs. Mason chuckled, “I’m looking forward to not getting the phone calls. Like ‘I’m too hot,’ or ‘I’m too cold,’ or ‘I can’t open my windows’. The HVAC contractor promised me that everything will work correctly, so I have that to look forward to.”
“Well of course I’m looking forward to the technology, and how I can use it within lesson plans for the kids,” said Keenan. “ But I’m also looking forward to seeing everyone all the time again, because when I’m in Pennfield, I don’t see everyone as much as I used to.”

“I had a very small spot, and I shared with the reading specialist, and we got along greatly, but we still had to share a very small space. But going back, I’ll have a good sized space so I can hold conferences with groups and see kids, so I’m just looking forward to having that schedule flexibility because it makes meeting the kids needs that much easier,” said Bainbridge, with a beaming smile.

“I’m most excited about just being in a building where everything is nice and new, with everybody being happy in their space,” said Waters. “Through all of the past years, our kids have just kept going and have been positive, so it will be nice to be in a nice, new space that everyone can learn and be successful and learn in.”
Respect and Responsibility was the lifeblood of the original Hatfield Elementary School. And despite a change of location, facilities, schedule, and overall procedures, Respect and Responsibility is holding firm this year. Dr. Waters sees it every day throughout the building, in every student and staff member.

“That is something we do, something we stand for and try to embody. And despite all of these changes, everyone has kept living that motto, from the students to the teachers. It’s all business as usual, and I credit the staff for their work,” said Waters. “As hard as it was to pack up an entire school, while you’re still trying to teach, they made it possible, and they’re making it a very great experience for the kids. The kids are excited, and they have been upbeat and positive, really just continuing to live respect and responsibility, and soaring above and beyond.”

Even though they knocked Hatfield Elementary School down and gutted its insides, that was just a building, the space that the student body occupied during 180 days between September and June. Hatfield Elementary is a family, and they are still thriving under their current conditions, living respectfully, responsibly, and soaring above and beyond.