SPRINGFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

:''This article is about the fictitious Springfield Elementary School in the American television show ''The Simpsons.'' There may also be other Springfield Elementary Schools.''
In the television series ''The Simpsons'', 'Springfield Elementary School' is the name of the school that Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson and their peers attend.
Horribly underfunded and suffering from the incompetence and apathy of its administration, teachers and staff, Springfield Elementary is a satirical comment on the state of publicly funded schools and education in the United States. As an illustrative example and parody of the lengths to which some schools are willing to go in an attempt to overcome underfunding, some Springfield Elementary School students (specifically Cletus and Brandine's children) are purposely excluded from state or federal standardized testing regimes. The impetus being the maintenance of artificial school-wide averages and therefore basic levels of government support—a practice not unheard of in the United States and other systems where funding is tied to test results.
Established in episodes "Separate Vocations" and "Pokey Mom", the school's mascot is a puma. Notably revealed in the episode "Lisa Gets an 'A'", Springfield Elementary was at one time voted "The Most Dilapidated School in Missouri"—it was then moved, brick-by-brick, to Springfield. It has been stated many times that the school is filled with asbestos. Underfunding of the school has resulted in a variety of troubling scenarios for students and staff. Sub-standard facilities abound, including a cinder block having replaced the school's tether ball, cafeteria food made from circus animals, shredded newspaper, and old gym mats (only the teachers eat french fries made from potatoes), among others.
For a few episodes the school also had a tower with a winding staircase within which led to an observation area. This has since been removed. Other short period additions include a disabled ramp access system built by the local mafia and other constructions. In one episode the presentation hall is bulldozed to make way for a mini-mall.
The school's address is 16 Plympton Street. In one episode, Lisa was late for school and needed a ride. The driver, when said to go to Springfield Elementary, mistaken Lisa for the West Springfield Elementary, which suggests that there are two Springfield Elementaries.

Administration and Administrative Staff

Principal W. Seymour Skinner

Main articles: Seymour Skinner

Skinner is the principal of Springfield Elementary School, and a stereotypical educational bureaucrat. He struggles to control the crumbling school and is constantly engaged in a battle against its inadequate resources, apathetic and bitter teachers, and often rowdy and unenthusiastic students (Bart Simpson being a standout example). He often tries to exploit Lisa Simpson's genius to make the school look good. His birth name was Armen Tamzarian.

Superintendent Chalmers

Main articles: Superintendent Chalmers

Superintendent Gary Chalmers is the superintendent of Springfield's school district in ''The Simpsons''. Whenever he visits Springfield Elementary, some sort of disaster strikes. He produces extreme cases of anxiety in Principal Skinner, who offers increasingly improbable stories to explain what is happening.

Leopold

Voiced by Dan Castellaneta, Leopold was Superintendent Chalmers' assistant. He was a surly, snarling one-trick pony; when Principal Skinner had to be temporarily replaced, Leopold stomped in, issued vague threats, and terrified the children, making them think he was the replacement, and then suddenly politely introduced the actual substitute, Ned Flanders. The children then collectively sighed with relief. The gag was repeated when Marge Simpson became a substitute teacher in the episode "The PTA Disbands".

State Comptroller Atkins

Voiced by Karl Wiedergott.
Comptroller Atkins has only made a handful of appearances. In "Lisa Gets an "A"" he was sent to deliver the basic assistance grant Springfield Elementary earned after Lisa cheating on a test brought the school's GPA up to the state's minimum requirement; in this episode, if Otto's impersonation of Atkins is accurate, he is originally of Canadian origin. He appeared later in "Saddlesore Galactica," where he moderated the elementary school band competition at the state fair. He planned to give Lisa the unusually large good sportsmanship award until he heard her call the first place band cheaters for using glowsticks in their performance, at which point he said, "now I'm just going to be sick."

Teachers/Faculty

Edna Krabappel

Main articles: Edna Krabappel

Edna Krabappel is a teacher in the fourth grade at Springfield Elementary. In some episodes she is shown as being a very bad teacher who doesn't care if her students, especially Bart, get bad grades.

Elizabeth Hoover

Miss Hoover

'Elizabeth Hoover' is the 2nd Grade teacher at Springfield Elementary, voiced by Maggie Roswell and Marcia Mitzman Gaven while Roswell was involved in a pay dispute. Miss Hoover has been worn down by her years in the public school system, and is not against drinking significant quantities of alcohol. She is very apathetic and bored with her job, and seems overwhelmed with stress, seeking whatever remedies she can to alleviate it. She is often seen smoking even while teaching, once even under a "No Smoking" sign in the assembly hall. Her desperate attempts to regain her stability include rushing out of class to recite "Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean" with her eyes closed, and even, on two occasions, getting into her car and driving off.
She is in particular weary of dealing with Lisa's unbridled enthusiasm (though initially she seemed proud of Lisa) and Ralph's mishaps and inanities. A typical response to one of his difficulties is, "The children are right to laugh at you, Ralph." She was replaced by a substitute teacher, 'Mr. Bergstrom', when she thought she had Lyme disease. It turned out that her condition was psychosomatic, which the children thought that meant that she was both "faking it" and "crazy." At the beginning of the series, her hair was blue, which changed to red, then changed to brown (her current hair color).

Dewey Largo

Mr. Largo

Voiced by Harry Shearer, 'Dewey Largo', often mistakenly called "Prof. Ludwig", is the music teacher, whom Lisa credited with proving that any piece of music could have the soul sucked out of it. He is very uncreative and is a poor conductor.
He has not played a large role in the series, but was originally intended to be an uptight foil for Lisa, and her non-conformist ways. In one episode, however, in which Lisa first meets Bleeding Gums Murphy, he criticizes Lisa's creative freedom with the piece he is conducting, and blatantly hopes that the class won't suffer from her creativity. In one issue of the (possibly non-canonical) Simpsons comic, he is mentioned to be head of the school's "Talent Restraint Board". After the first few seasons, Mr. Largo was rarely seen and only appeared in approximately one episode per season. However he has since resurfaced as a recurring character in the seventeenth season, making appearances in several episodes. His backwards push was noted in ''Homer to the Max''. When Lisa notes that some TV shows push characters into the background, Mr. Largo walks by the window.
In the 17th season episode "My Fair Laddy", after Willie left Springfield Elementary, the groundskeeping work was passed on to the next lowest person employed at the school, which turned out to be Largo. In "See Homer Run", it was "visually suggested" that Waylon Smithers was caught in an act of impropriety (of a homosexual nature) with Largo and then verbally attempted to cover it up afterwards. Also in the 17th season in the episode "Homer's Paternity Coot" it is revealed that Largo was accepted to the Juilliard School, but never got the letter as it was frozen atop Mount Springfield. He ended up at Springfield Elementary instead.
Another interesting note is Mr. Largo has banned the "forbidden music" also known as "Pop Goes The Weasel". His last name is also an Italian word for a slow, broad musical tempo, a possible reference to the fact that he can make any piece of music uninteresting.

Brunella Pommelhorst

The school gym teacher, voiced by Tress MacNeille. First appeared in "Moaning Lisa", although her name isn't mentioned until "The PTA Disbands" (Her full name is also printed in ). Mrs. Pommelhorst is seen sometimes in crowd shots, but rarely speaks. She has blond hair and usually wears a whistle and takes a tough-as-nails approach to teaching. In "Little Girl in the Big Ten", she decides that because of the oath she took on '', she has to fail Lisa but decides to let her make it up by taking private lessons. In a more recent episode, "My Fair Laddy", she decides to go leave for the year and return the next semester as "Mr. Pommelhorst, the new shop teacher." Her name is very likely derived from a fixture in gymnasiums, the Pommel horse. In ''The Simpsons Movie'', she appears amongst the group of people stealing donuts from the fallen Lard Lad's.

Coach Krupt

Coach Krupt thrusting a ball

'Coach Krupt', voiced by Hank Azaria, is a gym teacher who is obsessed with the game Bombardment, where he just hits students with balls relentlessly. He also plays this game with bread rolls in restaurants. He is the substitute teacher for Ms. Pommelhorst who is taking a leave of absence, because she's recovering from sex reassignment surgery. Krupt has a wife and two children, a boy and a girl. Coach Krupt was seen in the episode "My Fair Laddy".

Audrey McConnell

Third grade teacher, introduced in "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade". Uncharacteristically for a teacher at Springfield Elementary, she doesn't seem as downbeat or exasperated as Edna Krabappel or Ms. Hoover, displaying a certain degree of cheerfulness, confidence and competence, at least until the buddy system fails.

Miss Barr

Voiced by Miriam Flynn, gym teacher in "Moaning Lisa"

Mrs. Cummerdale

Gym teacher.

Mrs. Holmes-Indigo

Science teacher.

Mr. Kupferberg

Mr. Kupferberg is the French teacher who can't speak French, as exposed by Lisa. He is voiced by Hank Azaria. He spoke only within one episode, and appeared in after episodes.

'Lisa': ''J'accuse, Monsieur Kupferberg!''

'Mr. Kupferberg': (in a Brooklyn accent) ''What is she yakkin' about?''

Mr. Glasscock

Former teacher who transferred to Springfield Elementary when promised the students would no longer make fun of his name, but left when all the teacher's edition textbooks were stolen.

School Staff

Groundskeeper Willie

Main articles: Groundskeeper Willie

Springfield Elementary School's groundskeeper who has a shack that he lives in behind the school. He is a Scottish man with red hair.

Otto Mann

Main articles: Otto Mann

Otto Mann is the bus driver of Springfield Elementary. His apparent sole pastime is playing the guitar, which, according to him, was "all [he] did when [he] was growing up." His catch-phrase is "Alright!" and he is much endeared by students of Springfield Elementary, especially Bart.

Lunchlady Doris

'Lunchlady Doris Peterson' (originally voiced by Doris Grau) is an overweight, middle-aged, and laconic worker at the Springfield Elementary School cafeteria. During school cut backs, she also served as the school nurse and in the episode "Much Apu About Nothing" she was seen as a mail carrier. She has served many distasteful things to the students, including whole beef hearts, horse testicles, and ground-up gym mats. She has been implied to have a relationship with Groundskeeper Willie, and her son is Squeaky Voiced Teen.
After Grau's death in 1995, Lunchlady Doris was retired out of respect for over 10 years. Due to the delay between recording some episodes and the time they actually air, Grau's voice was included in episodes airing as late as 1997 such as "Lisa's Sax"^[1]. Lunchlady Doris then became a silent background character and was mostly been seen in crowds and groups of other faculty members. She continued like that until she speaks in the 18th season during "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer", where she is voiced by Tress MacNeille.

Dr. J. Loren Pryor

Dr. J Loren Pryor

'Dr. J. Loren Pryor' is the school psychiatrist. He is based on an early design for Seymour Skinner. He first appeared in Bart the Genius, and it was his decision to send Bart to the school for above-average children. He is also the one Bart goes to when he wants to go back to his regular school. In Bart Gets An F, he tells Bart that he may have to repeat the 4th Grade. His voice saying this echoes around Bart's head. He then appears again, discussing Bart's problems at school and Lisa's special gift in a flashback sequence of "Lisa's Sax". Pryor does not appear again until See Homer Run, when he tells Lisa that she is going through a developmental condition. He then makes many other appearances. In ''The Simpsons Movie'', he was at the school yard watching the dome cover Springfield.

Myra

Myra has only appeared once, in We're on the Road to D'ohwhere, as Principal Skinner's secretary. It has been claimed that Myra will return in Season 19.

Ms. Phipps

School nurse.

Groundskeeper Seamus

Irish groundskeeper and Willie's worst enemy.

Coach Fortner

Alcoholic sports coach.

Temporary Teachers/Faculty

===Mr. Bergstrom

Substitute teacher while Miss Hoover was away with psychosomatic lyme disease. Lisa had a crush on him.

Ned Flanders===
Temporary replacement principal after Principal Skinner was suspended in Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song. He was demoted by Superintendent Chalmers when he said a prayer in school time.

Students

Main articles: Springfield Elementary School Students

Name of South Carolina school

In 1994, the naming of a new elementary school in Greenwood, S.C. was left up to the students, and the name ''Springfield Elementary'' was chosen. The school board was unaware of the connection to ''The Simpsons'' until a protest by one group of parents. The name stood for the school, which opened in August 1994 [1].^[2]

References

1. http://snpp.com/guides/doris.html
2. http://www.snpp.com/other/articles/briefhistory.html

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