›› Kate Wallace

On a recent walk past George Jay School, I was thrilled to see our seismic ­improvements had begun, giving the ­century-plus ­building a much-needed ­facelift. Hooray! Not only will this improve the building’s safety, but the interior and exterior modernization and beautification will bring a sense of pride to all our school families.

This upgrade comes with the risk of losing community spirit, however, as our children will be bussed to ­Richmond Elementary School for the year. This will certainly impact parent/teacher/family ­relationships and the community ­connections that have been made over the past few years. (It’s worth noting that George Jay’s new big playground and field will be open before and after school for playtime.) As a result, one of the PAC’s top priorities will be to ensure that school community spirit remains strong.

To this end, we have rented Fernwood NRG’s gym for our annual ­Halloween dance to ensure families can easily ­participate instead of having to drive or bus to ­Richmond. We have also begun ­sourcing local community groups interested in ­hosting our popular school Movie Nights. And we’ll continue our mid-December ­Holiday Emporium tradition, where kids can buy gifts for their families at a minimal cost.

One of our other challenges was ­finding new daycare providers for before and after school care. Fortunately, Fernwood NRG has created a program for school-age ­children, so if you need affordable and trustworthy care, look no further than our own community.

This will also be George Jay’s first year in the French Immersion program. Our school already hosts a multitude of ­students from around the world and the ­introduction of French programming is expected to enhance our school’s already existing “community of the world” spirit. Thanks to the new French programming, our school enrollment has already gone up and will continue to grow by one class a year: more families mean more community connections, which is always beneficial to everyone.

The kids and I are so glad to be back at school!