NEW PARIS — Coronavirus relief funds are helping one local district provide an outdoor space for students and teachers to utilize. Work on the project began earlier this month.
“We are creating a outdoor classroom space/lunch area for kids and teachers to go outside and utilize,” National Trail Superintendent Bob Fischer explained last week.
“Our lunch situation — it’s very tight. We have a lot of kids in a small space. So this was an opportunity for us in the warmer weather times to be able to expand and use extra dollars because of the need to get more distance between kids by creating this lunch area space,” he said.
The idea has been discussed for several years, according to Fischer. “Even when I was back as a high school principal, we had talked about trying to figure out ways that we could create some outside areas for kids,” he said.
According to Fischer, students themselves have asked if there was a way to create an outside area for them to eat lunch in.
“It was something that was always a topic, but you know, we didn’t really look at it until the ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds came about. And part of the ESSER funds is to look at ways that you can open up space and create more room,” Fischer explained.
“We were trying to figure out how we could have three to six feet between the kids in the lunchroom, because that was probably our biggest weakness area, our lunch room, and then it just kind of naturally came about.”
Ground was broken and work on the outdoor area began on Feb. 1, according to Fischer, who said the hope is to be able have it completed and ready for use by April.
“I posted something on social media about it right as we broke ground, and the response and social media has been very positive,” he said.
“The kids are excited about it as well,” Fischer said. “And the teachers are too, because it’s going to give them a nice place to be able to sit and eat and enjoy the outside weather, and when it’s not being used for lunch, a teacher can go down and use it for classroom space.”
The approximately 30’x30’ space will be enough for 14 tables and be a concrete pad up to the school building. “We know not all of our kids will want to go outside, but it’s going to open up a lot more space within our cafeteria for kids to be able to move around,” Fischer added. “And it’s going to be open for our seventh and 12th grade students because we have both sitting down there — you’ll have kids that will go out and just sit against the wall as well.”
“There’s a lot of things that we’ll be able to do with it — during proms and dances it will be a great opportunity to use it for pictures, and alumni groups that come in,” he said. “It’s going to have a wood overhang on it right now — a lattice overhang. When it’s all done, one of the things we wanted to make sure we did was make it look like it wasn’t an afterthought, to make it look like a meaningful part of our building. It’s going to have a pergola look to it and it’ll offer some shade as well.”
The school district is keeping the work local by utilizing a local contractor, Prograde. “Darrell (Buckley, owner of Prograde) was very excited about doing the project because he has kids in the district,” Fischer said. “He and I have talked on several occasions. He said this meant a lot for him to be able to get this opportunity, because it’ll be able to be something he knows will have a lasting impact on the school district and something that he’s excited to be a part of.”
“It’s 100 percent funded with ESSER dollars, so we were excited about that,” Fischer said. “And it’s really our second as a project that we’ve done, because earlier we did our HVAC in the high school as well.”
The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund is the main source of funding for public elementary and secondary education under the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act of March 2020, the CRRSA (Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations) Act of December 2020 and the ARP (American Rescue Plan) Act of March 2021.
