After year of planning, district ready to introduce ‘Oakestown culture’

Grandville — The brick school building with the sprawling front lawn at 3535 Wilson Ave. has served several purposes for Grandville Public Schools over the past six decades. Originally built as a high school that opened in 1964, it later became the district’s middle school for grades 7 and 8 before the middle school moved to its new building last year. 

This week Wednesday, the school will officially open once again, refurbished and rebranded as the new Oakestown Intermediate School for grades 5 and 6. The restructuring plan, originally approved by voters in 2019, eases congestion in Grandville’s seven elementary schools by moving all of the district’s approximately 840 fifth- and sixth-graders to be under one roof at Oakestown. 

“Our building is a place for fifth- and sixth-graders specifically, both academically and socially, to learn and to grow and to build those strong academic bases,” Principal Brian Mulder said. “But the biggest thing is, we want them to feel like it’s a place where they belong … where they can find their niche and build connections.” 

‘The true leadership is the staff and our students, and making sure that those voices are heard is what makes school better for our students.’

— Oakestown Principal Brian Mulder

The district has spent the past year readying Oakestown for its new purpose, both physically and philosophically. The building has been undergoing renovations to transform the school into a setting that suits the educational needs of students in early adolescence. 

At the same time, Mulder and Stacey Byl, Oakestown’s curriculum and engagement strategist, have been working with a planning committee on how to best integrate staff and students and create a unique, intentional Oakestown culture. 

“By putting all of our resources in one spot, we’re able to offer academics and supports so much better — and more efficiently — and probably offer a better product for kids,” Mulder said. 

“At the same time, we’re taking them from their home community (elementary) school; that can be a hard thing. But I think our fifth- and sixth-graders didn’t always get what they need or wanted at the elementary environment. So we had to look at every piece and revamp programming — set things up to give (students) more leadership opportunities and more mature academic pieces … (and) also keep them younger longer.”

For the Students

The revamped Oakestown building features several new, large spaces for experiential learning, such as two new STEAM labs, a dedicated art room and four new science labs specifically designed for messy experiments and easy clean-up. There are also two new project rooms with space to hold up to four classes at once for big activities, plus small breakout rooms throughout the building for small group work. 

Oakestown students will also benefit from several spaces that already existed in the building’s past lives, such as a double-sized gym, large music rooms, an auditorium and a kitchen. 

“Our biggest hurdle is (thinking), we’ve never had these (amenities), we’ve always wanted it and now we have it — so how do we use (them)?” said Mulder, who was previously the principal at West Elementary. “But it’s a big bonus and we’re excited to figure it out.”

Curriculum-wise, students will see the addition of a science, technology, engineering, art and math class; more art time; more physical education time; and more music time — or, in the case of the sixth-graders, a music class during the school day for the first time. Oakestown was able to add these classes by slightly shortening the time allotted for lunch and recess, which was standardized at the elementary schools for younger students, Mulder said.

Even lunches will look slightly different at the intermediate level: With a kitchen on site, students will be able to pick what they’d like to eat at lunchtime, instead of ordering ahead of time, and portion sizes will be more age-appropriate. 

For the Teachers

From a teaching perspective, bringing the district’s full fifth- and sixth-grade staff together in the same building for the first time is “overwhelmingly exciting,” said fifth-grade English Language Arts and social studies teacher Abby Straszheim. 

“Last year we spent a lot of time planning for this move and talking curriculum, and what we were seeing is there’s lots of differences between all the (elementary) buildings,” she said. “Now we’re all coming together to share all these awesome things that have been working in our classrooms, comparing notes, asking questions. … I think that’s the culture we’re building here, that we’re all one team, and working together opens so many doors.”

Oakestown teachers will work together in four-person “pods” to increase the collaboration opportunities, Mulder said, and also be paired with a teaching partner. The partner duos will share the same class of students, but one teacher will cover math and science while the other will focus on ELA and social studies. 

Straszheim, who comes from Grand View Elementary, tested the split-subject approach last year with her fellow teaching partner “just to kind of get a feel for what it would be like.” 

“We saw our (test) scores rocket up, and the engagement piece was way up, too,” she said. “Being able to be subject-specific in your teaching allows you to really invest time and energy in your craft, and clearly there was an impact on (the students) too. So I’m excited to keep going with that approach here.” 

For the Culture

For Mulder, the most exciting — and the most challenging — part of launching a new intermediate school has been working to establish a school culture that is uniquely Oakestown. He and Byl, the curriculum and engagement strategist, set three big goals that will embody this culture: peer-to-peer student connection, staff connection with students throughout the building and opportunities for student leadership.

“We’re trying to create all sorts of layers of connections here, so a kid can feel like they belong some way, somehow,” he said. “They’ll see someone from the lunch staff wearing their house shirt and it creates one little extra connection in a big building. That student now is not just one of 800-plus students; they’re part of something.” 

Staff members in each house will also intentionally create opportunities for student leadership, whether that’s a community service leader, a positive behavior leader or a literal cheerleader at group events. The house adults will work with — but not instruct — students as they learn what it means to lead, Mulder said. 

“Fifth- and sixth-graders are working to figure everything out,” he said. “Good choices, bad choices, sometimes they don’t know any different. But that’s where we think our house system, the collaboration with peers and adults, can help. … It’s like an umbrella that really pulls together all the different aspects of the building — of the education — that we want to provide.”

With that foundation in place and nearly all remodeling projects complete, Mulder said he’s eager to start the school year, begin building the Oakestown culture and hand over the reins to his capable staff and incoming students. 

“(At Oakestown) I may be the leader in name, but everyone is doing their different parts and I’m excited to see how it all comes together,” he said. “The true leadership is the staff and our students, and making sure that those voices are heard is what makes school better for our students.”

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