LEON SPRINGS – This year, kindergarten-roundup parents formed two lines instead of one. For those in the Aue Elementary line, the experience was bittersweet says lead Leon Springs Elementary kindergarten teacher Jenny Burkett.

“I think it’s bittersweet for people who have been here. They’re excited because it’s going to be an awesome school. Brand new. Everything. Sparkly and shiny and new,” Burkett said. “But it’s like any change. Even if you’re excited, there’s a part of you that’s a little bit timid and scared.”

When the Northside Independent School District announced where the boundary

lines would be drawn, some families, especially those who live in established neighborhoods, protested the change in schools. Now, parents like Scenic Oaks resident Patti Martinez say they feel positive about the move because no one is going it alone.

“I think it’s going to be great,” Martinez said. “All of us are going to go as a community to a state-of-the-art school. There are good teachers here (at Leon Springs Elementary, long the only school in the area), but there will be good teachers there, too.”

Martinez helped staff the Aue Parent Teacher Association during the January Leon Springs Elementary PTA meeting. Burkett says she hopes that spirit of cooperation will continue to exist between the two schools.

“I’m hoping we can do some things together,” Burkett said. “It would be like having a sister school.”

Leon Springs Elementary Principal Kathy Dodge-Clay says 240 of the 847 students now attending her school will move to Aue this fall. Leon Springs will lose 10 teachers and 10 classrooms. Not only will portables disappear, there will be empty classrooms inside the building. The principals says they’ll again have the luxury of a PTA room replete with a barrel of toys, where parents can deposit their preschoolers while they volunteer in their older children’s classrooms.

“It’s going to be awesome next year,” Burkett said about the 2007-08 school year. “The portables should be gone by the end of May, so we’ll get our playground back.”

Class sizes should fall back to 22, Burkett says. The current projection for next year is four kindergarten classrooms at both schools with a possibility of five. Currently, Leon Springs has six kinder classes.

The children who showed up with their parents for the kinder roundup were allowed to go through the cafeteria line and pick up milk and cookies.

“It was fun. They’re like a head shorter than the kids I have now. They have these little hands. I think the kids are excited no matter what,” Burkett said, but added, “I do think if you’re going to be a fifth grader here, that might be kind of tough.”