WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |Metro school turns storage building into Pre-K academy

Metro school turns storage building into Pre-K academy

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Decades ago, educators thought children should be taught in an open classroom setting- buildings with no walls, and instead, dividers and bookshelves to separate the classes.

When the educational concept faded out, some schools were left with round buildings. Some built walls to create separate classrooms again.

Bellshire Elementary Design Center, just west of Madison, has one of those buildings behind the main school building. And over time, it became a place for storage.

Then Principal Donna Wilburn came up with the idea of creating a small learning community for her Pre-Kindergarten students.

"Many people put in extra hours, extra work, extra money, extra brainpower, but we made it happen," says Wilburn. The Bellshire Pre-K Academy was ready just in time for the first day of school.

Bellshire has five Pre-K classes. Now, they are all housed together in one building, with a big open central area for learning centers, dubbed Centerville by the teachers.

The staff has an onsite workroom, and just outside the door is the Pre-K playground.

"It's really wonderful to be able to work with four other teachers and everybody be able to plan together and share ideas," says Pre-K teacher Mendy Coe.

Coe says other Pre-K teachers in Nashville have seen the academy and want one of their own.

But most schools have only a couple of Pre-K classes, not five, and most schools don't have a separate round building that they can turn from an old storage facility into a center of learning just for the little ones.