14 JUL 05: PORTA-BULLETIN

Some of you who read us outside Columbus will want to know the "back to school" sales are underway here. In fact, this year it seems everyone actually waited until after Independence Day to start them.

Muscogee County Schools plan several changes for the coming year. The biggest change involves moving several portable classrooms, to areas with growing enrollment. It's too bad none of them are near that empty old Sears store on Macon Road.

Muscogee County school officials expect to use at least six portable classrooms this coming year. Two of them would go to Northside High School, which has reached capacity in only four years. This has to scare Peachtree Mall's managers - seeing more and more teenagers gathering near Columbus Park Crossing.

Three portable classrooms are planned at Midland Middle School, while one would go to Double Churches Middle. We assume that building will be a "Double-wide...."

Deputy Superintendent Robin Pennock assured a reporter Wednesday the planned portable classrooms are "new, clean.... well-kept...." This apparently means they're not being moved from Mockingbird Mobile Home Park.

Robin Pennock says it's better to have students learning in portable classrooms, than in "closets or storage space." After all, we need those closets to provide coaches and teachers office space....

The portable classrooms would be moved from four grade schools: Allen, Muscogee, Wesley Heights and Wynnton. It's nice to see even buildings can be promoted to higher grades....

In Alabama, portable classrooms for students are NOT considered good things. Remember when Don Siegelman ran for Governor in 1998, promising to get rid of them? Then four years later, voters decided they wanted portable governors instead.

But when you think about it, having school in a portable classroom can have hidden advantages - especially at higher grades. Students can exercise by walking outside and getting fresh air during the day. As long as the classrooms aren't placed near the back fence where teenagers like to smoke....

I spent a little time in portable classrooms when I was young. The grade school music teacher had one, which we'd visit for 30 minutes every couple of days. Then the portable went away, and the music teacher was given a rolling cart. Looking back, I think that was downsizing.

BLOG CORRECTION: It had been awhile since we visited the North Columbus Branch Library - and a check there Wednesday found there is NOT one little plaque in the entryway. There are three plaques, on a smaller scale than the three inside the new public library [1 Jul]. Either my memory is bad, or the plaques were a package deal.

Now let's refresh our thinking about other things from an occasionally wet Wednesday:

+ The Ledger-Enquirer reported on a Columbus Council debate over whether to put guardrails along Cherokee Avenue, so cars don't drive into a drainage canal. Isn't there a more obvious answer to this? Build a "canal-walk" - since the only vehicles you see on the Riverwalk are city trucks and police buggies.

+ A stroll through Peachtree Mall revealed a new Dairy Queen will open there soon, combined with an "Orange Julius." At nearby Columbus State University, instructors will have to remind students this was NOT the ruler of ancient Rome.

+ Brookstone High School hosted a four-school, seven-person flag football tournament. Only passing plays are allowed, while rushing is not. So what they're doing outside is a bit like arena-less arena football....

(Is this sort of event legal under Georgia High School Association rules? Fall football practice has a definite start date. Just ask people living near Pacelli High School - where the first practice is at 12:00 midnight on a Sunday night.)

+ Instant Message to the young man who told me he's a "38-year-old in a 21-year-old body": At which Victory Drive nightclub did you pick up that line?

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