Plains kids take Polar Express tour

The kids at Plains Elementary School had to wait outside Monday morning, but when they were let in, they all got a special train ride.

Conductor Tom Hanks, aka Superintendent Thom Chisholm, greeted the students at the door and handed each one a special ticket for the Polar Express. Its tracks ran for nearly 300 feet through the elementary school halls.

The 10 elementary school teachers from kindergarten to fourth grade, along with two title one teachers and a handful of aides, started decorating the halls right after the kids left school on Friday at 3:30 p.m. They worked until 11 p.m. Friday. Some went in Saturday and Sunday to complete their Polar Express sections.

"It's a wonderful job the teachers did," said elementary school Principal Jim Holland, who added that he was amazed how much work the staff put in to duplicate the Polar Express route through tunnels, over a lake, and through the wilderness to the North Pole. Photographs of the 175 students were lined up as "passengers" on the walls of the train route.

"They did an amazing job; they are an incredible staff," said Chisholm, who was dressed in a custom made Polar Express conductor outfit, complete with a lantern and Hanks mustache.

This is the second year that the elementary teachers and staff decorated the halls for the holidays with teacher Jill Rice as the project brain child, said Denise Montgomery, one of two fourth grade teachers to work on the Polar Express display. Last year, they went with a North to South Pole theme.

"We just wanted to make this a magical experience for the students and it's a good way to express our creativity," said Montgomery. The staff began formulating plans for the exhibit over a month ago.

They worked in teams, each taking a section to do. Montgomery said the halls are a progression of how the movie goes. The 2004 Polar Express is a computer animated film of a boy who joins other children on a special train ride to visit Santa Claus at the North Pole on Christmas Eve.

The elaborate decorations showed a myriad of handcrafted ornaments and props throughout the halls' floor, ceiling and walls, including a custom-built near six-foot long Polar Express done by Rice. The staff paid for some of the decorations, but much was provided by Erika Lawyer, owner of Mountain West Clothing, and Joel Collett, Studs Building and Home, both Plains businesses, as well as anonymous donors, said Montgomery. In addition, Revier Transportation donated its bus service to provide the elementary school students a ride to Llano Theatre, where owner John Meckler is setting up a special viewing of Polar Express on Friday.

"It was definitely a community effort. It's going to be hard to beat next year," said Montgomery.

The fifth and sixth grade students, which are located in a different school wing, decorated their area with a winter wonderland theme. The school also held a door decoration contest. Librarian Marlee Meredith won the Christmas Traditional category. Winners included the following themes: Movies or TV - Saroyan LaDeaux, Educationally Related - Sue Snead and Beki Uski, and Students Choice - Rheanna Fultz. Individual teacher winners were: Carl Benson, Debbie Brown, and Kyle Mitchell. Honorable mentions went to teachers Wendy Turlock, first grade, Paige Fickler, fifth grade, and Jaron Laws, sixth grade. The grand door prize went to art teacher Kristen Cole.