One of the side exits in the newly constructed Hanceville Elementary School.

HANCEVILLE — The students returning to Good Hope Middle and Hanceville Elementary schools next week will be the first to grace the halls of the latest completed capital improvement projects unveiled by the Cullman County Board of Education on Tuesday, Aug. 1.

Good Hope middle-schoolers will no longer have to worry themselves with long treks between buildings which were previously shared with high school classes. The new dedicated gymnasium and library is within significantly closer proximity to the middle-school classroom space and is outfitted with a secured entrance and administration offices.

Superintendent Shane Barnette said by giving students their own library space he is hoping to provide educators more flexibility to schedule lessons as well as allowing students more of an opportunity to socialize between classes.

“One of the biggest benefits is the schedule. How do you schedule that one library for all of the kids from 6th through 12th grade? As you can imagine, they don’t get to go to the library very often. In today’s world, the library is so much more than just going and checking out a book or two. There’s a lot of other lessons that are taught there,” Barnette said.

Good Hope school board representative Kerry Neighbors said the expansion was “long overdue” and recalled his time spent selling advertisements through his former real estate company in an attempt to raise funds for the project. He said he was among one of the first classes to attend classes in the existing middle school classrooms and was excited that his eighth grade daughter, Caroline, would be one of the first students to benefit from the expansion.

“As we’ve been building this, I’ve told her, “Okay kid, I want you to be the first girl to score a basket in this gym.’ So, don’t be surprised if she takes a lot of shots this year,” Neighbors said.

Like the new facilities in Good Hope, the inclusion of a dedicated elementary school cafeteria at Hanceville will ease the pressure of the school’s child nutrition workers.

“One of the struggles that we’ve had at Hanceville is that we’ve got a very old lunchroom, and the kids have to start eating lunch around 9:45 a.m. every day,” Barnette told The Times when construction first began in 2021. “It becomes a day-long strain on the current lunchroom and a disruption to the school schedule, just to get everyone, covering K-12, in and out of there each day.”

Included in the project are an additional 16 classrooms which double as a 645 occupant tornado shelter designed to withstand winds up to 250 mph.

After maintaining the county’s oldest occupied school building for nearly a century — the elementary school was opened in 1932 — the additional 16-classroom space should come as a welcomed addition to students and faculty alike. The building has been designed with several modern safety features such as fire doors and safety entrances and doubles as a 645 occupant storm shelter capable of withstanding 250 mph winds.

Kindergarten teacher Josey Freeman might not be able to compare her new classroom to the previous facility — 2023 will mark her first year as an educator — but she is nonetheless excited about the new facility. Freeman has been busy working to add the finishing touches on her “cactus/boho” themed classroom as she anxiously awaits her first crop of students.

“This is my first year year and I’ve just been really blessed to be able to have my first year be in this new building. My mom teaches 2nd grade here and it has always been my dream to be able to work as teacher right beside her. I’m just really ready to meet my new students,” Freeman said.