Welcoming home Edison

Remember when you were a kid, and your parents finally traded in the

car your family had had for years for a new one?

The old car had its advantages -- it was familiar, broken in, part

of the family -- but there was just something about getting a new car

(even a new used car) that held promise, be it because of a bigger

engine, more room or nicer accouterments.

Remembering that, imagine how Edison Elementary School staff and

students feel today. They’ve traded in their beloved, but beaten,

1926 jalopy of a school -- the recipient of countless patching and

add-on jobs over the past 74 years -- for a state-of-the-art 2003

showpiece.

Staff, faculty, district workers and movers from Andy’s Transfer &

Storage paraded between the former Edison campus and the school’s new

home earlier this week, carrying boxes and carts full of paper,

pencils, computers, desk accessories, and all the other things that

make up a school. In short order, the airy spaces comprising the new

school’s classrooms and hallways are taking on the look of the old

Edison, but with a lot more room and a lot of physical and technical

improvements.

Describing the traded-in model as vintage 1926 is a bit

inaccurate. The site where the soon-to-be-vacant Edison stands was

home to Pacific Avenue School from 1915 to 1926, the year it was

renamed Thomas Edison Elementary School. All of the original

buildings from 1926 are long gone, though the buildings still on the

site aren’t exactly this year’s model; most were built between 1951

and 1956. Since then, portable classrooms -- lots of them --

gradually have eaten away what’s left of the school’s playground

space.

The old Edison is not without its charms. All that closeness has

made for a tight-knit student body and a cozy familiarity, as well as

engendering the sort of camaraderie that comes with being in close

quarters for extended periods. Even casual visitors to the school

quickly are embraced, like extra guests at a big family dinner --

“What’s one more, when we already have so many?”

But the downside to closeness is that it’s really, well, crowded

in there. And all that tight-knit camaraderie is great until the

inhabitants start not getting along, which is when they realize

there’s no place for them to go to get away from each other.

The new school solves all that, and has a few community-minded

bonuses thrown in. It’s a much bigger facility, with enough real --

not portable -- classrooms to handle Edison’s present student body,

and some room to grow. It’s also got all the right wiring, lighting,

earthquake-proofing and safety features needed in our modern world.

For the community’s benefit, the Edison-Pacific Project, of which the

school is but one part, has at the same site a city branch library,

community center, revitalized park, sports fields and meeting rooms.

The $46-million project is a tremendous asset for the city of

Glendale, and a tribute to the efforts of school district and city

leaders, who joined forces to pay for the project and bring it to

fruition. And it’s a real boon to Edison students, faculty and staff,

who finally have enough room to breathe a deep sigh of relief that

it’s all done.

To them especially, we offer a resounding “welcome home.”