Ruhkala houses to schools

The early morning sound of a school bell ringing at 7:50 a.m. will be an adjustment for Rocklin's Cresleigh Heights neighborhood off of Blue Oaks Boulevard. But it is one residents have looked forward to for two years.Ruhkala Elementary School, 6530 Turnstone Way, officially opened its doors to more than 330 students Monday. "We are as pleased as punch," said Ruhkala Principal Gary Yee. "There is no more construction and the neat thing is we are fully staffed with 13 (kindergarten through sixth-grade) general education teachers and fully enrolled."Its tenant, Rocklin Academy Charter School, which boasts an enrollment of 310, kicked off the 2005-06 school year as well.By design, Ruhkala begins its day early and dismisses students at 2:20. Rocklin Academy comes along behind with classes starting at 8:10 a.m. Its day ends at 3:10 p.m.Parents John and Lisa Carr walked sons Casey, a first-grader, and third-grader Kyle from their nearby home. Both students attended Rock Creek a few miles away in 2004 and had to be transported."We are thrilled to have a school so close by," he said. "The kids will literally get up in the morning and walk to school."Although Kyle Carr said schools look pretty much the same, he is impressed with the openness of the new recess area because a fence had divided his former school's play area from a nearby community park."We couldn't go in the field at Rock Creek," the boy said. "And here at the new school I like the flat-screened computers."Pat Teilh, Academy principal, says she enjoys working with Yee."If I were to pick and choose the person I would work with I would absolutely choose him," she said. "Life is good with him."Yee transferred from Antelope Creek Elementary where he had worked as principal for five years and vice principal for two years.His secretary, Kathy Goebel, who had worked at Antelope Creek since it opened in 1992, also transferred to the new campus with about eight other staff and faculty members. Rocklin Academy has a mixed student body that includes children from neighboring cities. However, Executive Director David Patterson said many of its newer students are local."We've had a very positive response from the neighborhood," he said. "Overwhelmingly 90-92 percent of our students are from Rocklin."While parents of Ruhkala students, laden with school supplies to donate, escorted their children to school Yee and Ruhkala Librarian Nancy Wilson played the role of crossing guards. It wasn't until after school opened Monday that Rocklin Academy staff realized its need for crossing guards."We didn't have them at the other schools," said Tammy O'Brien, Academy office manager. "We've always been a school that parents drove their children to. This year there are quite a few neighborhood students that walk. We are going to determine how many of our students live in the neighborhood and go from there. We will do whatever is safest for the kids."Academy parents are learning it will take a bit longer to get their students situated at Ruhkala."We've been attending Rocklin Academy for three years," said Beverly Pellegrino, who has two students at Rocklin Academy. "We're going to have to get used to going through a neighborhood." Andy and Patty Breedlove, whose daughter Amelia is in the first grade, live near the Valley View campus where the Academy was formerly housed."It's a bit of a drive, but it's OK," he said. "I like the school a lot. With its grass and trees it looks like a college campus."Their daughter doesn't mind the drive. She thinks the school looks "cool.""I like my teacher too," she added. "I met her last week."-Brenda Meadows can be reached at brendam@goldcountrymedia.com.