This is one of three stories featuring some Hillsdale School District’s unique initiatives and projects. These projects were presented to Ashland Source on a Monday tour of the middle and high school.
JEROMESVILLE — The typical middle school student might spend their study hall working on homework or socializing, but four Hillsdale Middle School students would rather spend their free periods building stained glass windows with the gifted coordinator Andrew Lewellen.
Last year, three of the four — Lizzie Arnold, Samantha McCumbers and Scarlett Harris — built a largely blue and green space-themed window. They added the final touches on the last day of school, and it was installed near an existing stained glass window over the summer.
“I thought it was really cool that I’d be making something like that that’ll be part of the school,” Harris said.
Lewellen hopes to make two more windows this school year, one in the fall and the other in the spring. They’ll be installed and made to fit at the current middle school, but are intended to be relocated to the potential new building, if the proposed district’s proposed levy renewal passes.
The first of these will feature an underwater scene with jellyfish, Lewellen’s students explained. They had initially planned to make a food-themed window for the cafeteria, but once their creative juices started flowing, they jointly decided to build one with jellyfish.
The newest to the group, seventh grader Evelyn Woodlee drew the design.
And their teacher supported the notion, as it’s clear he’s done in the past with other students. His classroom features an upside-down paper-mache head overtop of the speaker for announcements. His students built the piece years ago while he worked out of a classroom with taller ceilings. Upon moving to his current space, his students requested it stay. Since it couldn’t be upright, the monster-like creature was placed upside-down.
He enjoys watching his students’ creativity run wild. When one of the girls said, “I’m no artist,” he’s quick with a rebuttal: “Yes, you are.”
The new stained glass windows will feature subtle shading and shadows. With a new kiln, obtained through a grant, the students can now paint the glass and bake the details into the material.
“(The windows are) something that beautify the school, it’s public art, and it lasts long beyond when the students are here, and the other thing is — they don’t know this — is to give them confidence and to show that they can do this artform that’s kind of mysterious,” Lewellen said.
“When you look at church windows, you think somebody with incredible talent, incredible vision or whatever must have done that, but when you break it down, you can do it in seventh grade.”
Long term, Lewellen imagines stained glass windows for every department in the middle school, and maybe one for every grade level in elementary school.
