Last year more than 960 students showed up to register for elementary school. I was astonished by the growing number. That was about 100 more students than we had during the previous school year. As principal of the school, it was my job to figure out how to teach all of the kids in the area. We had to hire extra teachers, but we couldn’t build extra classrooms. I spoke with a couple of people at the school board and they suggested a portable building. I didn’t want the Courtyard to look like a disaster, but a portable building was our only choice. The school board allowed me to select two portable buildings for two additional classrooms on the property. I chose two buildings that were big enough for a large class and two teachers. I had a great idea to combine classes in these larger portable buildings. One of the best features in the semi permanent structures was a brand-new ductless HVAC unit. Each one of the portable buildings came with a ductless HVAC unit. The buildings didn’t have traditional ductwork or insulation, so the HVAC unit ran a lot during the winter and the summer months. The portable buildings were a huge success and the parents and students seemed to be happy with the new changes. We’re going to keep the Portable Buildings for classrooms as long as we have enrollment numbers that are close to 1,000 students. We just don’t have enough classrooms to support those numbers unless we have extra places to teach the kids.