001The second proposition would add classroom space at three of our schools, including eight new classrooms at Cornwall Elementary School, a newly expanded cafeteria, plus additional classrooms at Cornwall on Hudson Elementary School, and three additional classrooms at Cornwall Central Middle School. Half of that project is tax neutral with the other half covered by a modest tax increase. Together, these classroom additions would help ease overcrowding and create a more sustainable learning environment moving forward. So, as part of Proposition 2, there is a four over four um for our building, which would be eight additional classrooms. And um I think this would be critical to making sure that we're preparing for the future and maintaining the excellence we've always had here at Corn Elementary School. you know, our community is growing, which is really exciting, but with that
002growth comes challenges to how do we maintain optimal class sizes, which we've been able to do. Um, but adding those eight classrooms would really allow us to have that flexibility to have a dedicated steam space to um if students need small group individualized supports, they can have their own classrooms for that and not have to share those spaces. So, it's really a great opportunity for our building to continue to give that individualized uh support to students when they need it. Um these additional classrooms would allow um every AIS teacher to have their own dedicated space. It would also allow us to add a classroom to a grade level if the numbers were getting um beyond that optimal point. And I would also uh really love to create a dedicated steam lab where so many different
003technology activities um and creative projects can happen. So it gives us a lot of different opportunities and I'm really excited about it. this additional space for our students, especially in the arts, um, for music, our music program and our arts program, will be able to provide our teaching staff with a space that is made for what they're doing. We're not repurposing a what used to be a classroom. So, when we go through the process of creating these spaces, we can create them so that they are made for art classes, middle school art classes. We can make sure that the music spaces are made for middle school students. and then they're taking their classes and their lesson groups um in a space that's really made for them. Um we have a really robust and uh really
004phenomenal arts and music program and our students do great things and we should be able to support them and give them the spaces that they need and the teachers the spaces they need to really provide the students with the exceptional experience that that we expect from them in normal classroom space is is tight. mandates from the state are are tough and we're not we're working with a building that's 50 or 60 years old that we never could have considered what what our model of a middle school would look like. We also could never have considered what the state would require of us when we're providing instruction to students. So if you told me, hey, you can have three classrooms today, I would jump at it and I would absolutely be able to fill it and
005provide our kids with the best possible experience. If the cafeteria was expanded uh and the back wall was moved outward uh that would allow us to have the students in the cafeteria during the whole lunch period. The way it works now is that we have enough room for student uh for every student to have a seat in the cafeteria. However, they have to stand in line in the hallway uh waiting for their lunch, which is also delivered. So, the lunches are not made on on campus here at CO. They are delivered each day. Once they're delivered, they're stored in the kitchen, which is across the hall from the serving area. Therefore, the cafeteria staff need to bring the lunches from the kitchen across the hallway to the serving area, uh trying to keep them warm.
006And our students are lined up in the hallway. And unfortunately, in that hallway, we have two classrooms, our two kindergarten classrooms. So, uh you can imagine the challenge of keeping 30 to 40 students um quiet enough not to disturb two classrooms uh during lunch periods. Uh unfortunately uh co does not have a lot of classroom space. So some of these things are being done now in in our in hallways. So there are some spaces in the hallways where our elevators are that uh we utilize for small groupoup instruction. Uh we also have one, two, three, three classrooms that are divided just using a space divider like a room divider uh where I have three separate teachers working with three separate groups of children sometimes at the same time uh because there is no there's no
007extra classroom space uh at CO. To learn more about the capital project, follow the Cornwall Board of Education on Facebook, find us on YouTube, or visit our website, cornwallschools.com.