The volunteers told the Turner Report they found some teachers angered, some in tears, as the rooms they had carefully prepared with the idea of making them warm and inviting for students when they returned from Christmas break ended up anything but that.
"That was not what we thought we would see. Those teachers were there on their time working to get things ready for the kids and they get slapped in the face. I thought this was all supposed be about the kids."
From all appearances, it was about administrators making a favorable impression on local and national media.
At least three teachers, after setting up their rooms they way they wanted, returned to work on them some more and found that everything had been taken down, as R-8 Administrators wanted no kind of personal items to detract from the aesthetic beauty of 21st Century learning.
Teachers were also forced to spend time Friday hiding some items in closets so they would not get in the way when the media came to East and the adjoining Soaring Heights Elementary School for a grand unveiling on Sunday. That event, as well as the first two days of school in the new buildings was canceled due to weather conditions.
Two volunteers told the Turner Report there appeared to be no one in charge of telling volunteers who needed help or giving them any guidance, even though Superintendent C. J. Huff and other administrators were hovering over teachers as they worked.
"They wanted to make sure things were exactly the way they wanted them," a volunteer said.
(The volunteers are not identified to prevent retaliation against the teachers they were helping.
