Pocono News Section

Eldred Elementary School To Close

Eldred Elementary School To Close - Friday, June 11, 2010 at 04:10AM EST

Reported by: Laurie Monteforte
Friday June 11 2010
ELDRED TOWNSHIP, MONROE COUNTY - A Pocono School is about to stop operating. Monday will be the last day of school at Eldred Elementary School. After more than 50 years in the Pleasant Valley School District the school will shut down.

Dora Tartar reminisced about her grade school days in the 1950s and 60s at the school. She recalled, "We had two grades in one classroom."

Her first day of third grade gave her life a direction. She remembered, "I came home and said to my mom and dad 'I'm going to be a teacher just like Mrs. Andrews.'"

She lived up to that statement. She taught in the Pleasant Valley School District for more than ten years then became an administrator, a Reading Supervisor. She got to teach kids in that little school she loved so much. She said, " When I'm in those classrooms that I sat in when I was a little girl it always is reminiscent of me being there and being a little girl." Those memories weighted on her mind as she was one of the people who decided Eldred Elementary School had to close. She held back tears as she said, "It was very very difficult. There were a lot of tears on my part."

She told Eyewitness News there was no choice. Enrollment at Eldred has dropped nearly 40% in the past five years. Principal Joseph Kondisko said, "It's a very emotional time. This building has meant a lot to the community, to the students, to the parents to the staff."

Students will now go to Polk or Chestnuthill Elementary Schools. THe s taff and teachers are also moving. Kondisko said that's what's really important. He explained, "It's been the staff, the students inside the building that make it special."

While the building won't be a school anymore it won't be shut down either. Tartar said, "It's not going to be boarded up. It's still going to be a viable building because we're looking at brining different organizations into the building."

She hopes someday enrollment increases so the building can serve as a school again.