Norwood Elementary Schools Face Severe Overcrowding as Cleveland Teacher Works Out of Storage Closet-October 27, 1987

Computer Teacher Operates Out of Converted Storage Closet at Cleveland School

Overflowing classrooms and creative space conversions have become the norm across Norwood’s elementary school system, exemplified by Barbara Lanzoni, computer teacher at the Cleveland Elementary School. As reported by Patriot Ledger staff reporter Stephen Walsh (with photography by Fred Field), Lanzoni has been forced to use a converted storage closet as her office since September. Because her computer will not fit inside the tiny space, the machine sits out in the hallway.

“It’s either the computer or me,” Lanzoni joked, noting she must step out of the closet into the hallway to teach. “I get jokes all the time, everyone always kidding me about coming out of the closet. I’m lucky to have it; it seems there’s no space in any elementary school.”

A tour of the 29-year-old, single-story brick and cinderblock Cleveland School—the largest of the town’s five elementary facilities—revealed space at an absolute premium. In one wide hallway, makeshift partitions braced by file cabinets have been erected to carve out areas for the gifted and talented student program, the music office, a preschool, physical therapy, and remedial education.

Staff members acknowledged the drawbacks of the layout. Early childhood specialist Marcia Krasnow noted, “The partitions don’t work as well as walls. The sound certainly carries farther. Partitions are used in large areas, but the noise can be distracting.” Cleveland Principal William Kenny explained that staff carefully positioned the partitions and file cabinets to give students receiving remedial or physical therapy as much privacy as possible. Nevertheless, ambient noise from band practice and neighboring classes frequently filters through. Band director Daniel Troderman added, “In years past, we had a room to ourselves, but now we’re out in the open, and the sound can travel… The kids don’t notice the overcrowding. The teachers notice the effects [of] any distractions.”

System-Wide Space Crunch and Sixth-Grade Debate

Overcrowding is not isolated to the Cleveland facility:

• Oldham Elementary School: Will require 17 classrooms next September, up from its current 16.
• Callahan Elementary School: Utilizes all 15 classrooms, forcing the school nurse and another staffer to continue sharing the secretary’s office, with zero space available for computer instruction or instrumental music.
• Prescott and Balch Elementary Schools: Currently utilize every available classroom.

School officials attribute the crunch not only to rising enrollment—climbing steadily from 1,571 students in 1983 to a projected 1,816 students by 1989—but also to expanding curricula. “It’s all these extras—the computer program, preschool, state-mandated remedial education; the extras that we either want or have to provide that cause the space problems,” Principal Kenny said.

Amid the elementary squeeze, the Norwood League of Women Voters is urging the school committee to reconsider its decision and move the sixth grade to the junior high next year. Without this shift, elementary schools will remain severely jammed while the junior high school—having a capacity of 865 students—is slated to host only 474 students next September, sitting nearly half-empty.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger