Teachers, Students Settle In At West Towson

Susan Hershfeld feels like the luckiest principal around. After the first day of classes at the new West Towson Elementary School, she heard the words every principal dreams of hearing.

"Mrs. Hershfeld, I don't want to go home, I want to stay here!" Hershfeld recalled some students saying.

"There's nothing better that a principal can hear from a child," she said.

The opening of the gleaming school on North Charles Street is the culmination of efforts by parents, political leaders and educators to solve overcrowding at Rodgers Forge Elementary and other schools.

The process wasn't always as pleasant as the late August open house at which more than 600 people–parents, students, teachers, administrators and political leaders–happily cheered the school's opening.

"Nobody is soaring like the people in Towson are soaring today," Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. told the crowd in the cavernous gymnasium.

The 69,300 square-foot school cost $22 million and under normal circumstances would have been built in 18 months. To be ready for fall classes, West Towson needed to be ready in 14 months.

"Gov. O'Malley personally intervened to make sure there was a quick turnaround," Smith said, adding that during his eight years in office the county has overseen the construction of eight new schools. "This is a state of the art facility."

The three-story building can hold 451 students and will have 15 regular classroom, three kindergarten classes, one pre-K class and two special education classrooms. The school also features an art room, two music rooms, a science room, a library or "media center," a video production room and two elevators.

It will be the first LEED-certified school in the county, and the school is pushing for green school recognition from the state. The wooden doors are made from bamboo. The floors are made from linseed. The school has a "green roof" over the kindergarten rooms. Such roofs reduce stormwater runoff and cools and preserves heat, reducing energy waste. Low-flow plumbing fixtures are expected to reduce water use by 40 percent.

Hershfeld said the green functions of the building double as learning tools for the children.

"Teachers are walking through the building and explaining to the kids the [green] aspects of the construction, that we must be a little kinder to our environment," she said, adding that some students often ask to go onto the school's green roof.

The cutting-edge building also has wireless internet access and the school's network distribution system can stream video. Each classroom has interactive white boards, ergonomic seats, adjustable desks and other modern touches.

"All the kids and the families feel very honored, as well as the staff and myself, to have this really unique building that's not only green, but also clearly designed to enhance teaching," Hershfeld said.

Cathi Forbes, a founding member of Towson Families United, was one of the parents who led the charge to build West Towson. Her son is starting the third grade at West Towson after having transferred from Rodgers Forge.

"There's no downside to opening a new school," she said. "The architects designed such a beautiful building, just very thoughtful about how all the space would be used. The families are all very excited."

Kelly Hepting has four children attending West Towson, two in first grade, one in second and one in fourth.

"I would have been happy either way. The school was the size of the town I grew up in," she said. "It's such a positive, bright environment. It's beautiful."