PINEHURST — Work crews broke ground last week on a new cafeteria at Pinehurst Elementary School, which is just the first step being taken to address overcrowding in the building.

In June of this year the Kellogg School District Board of Trustees approved the use of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Funds under the CARES Act to fund the $1.8 Million project.

PES has long been one of the community’s more overcrowded educational facilities — especially after Sunnyside Elementary was merged with them five years ago. The school currently enrolls 449 students in their aging brick building — where its max capacity is 506 students (if all available spaces are being used for their intended purpose, according to a 2016 facilities study).

As part of the project, the former cafeteria will be converted into classrooms. Two bathrooms will also be remodeled to accommodate some spatial concerns that became more apparent during the pandemic.

These issues fall directly in line with one of the primary concerns of the pandemic: social distance.

Schools are able to utilize ESSER funds in order to make school facility repairs and improvements to lower potential environmental health hazards and reduce the risk of viral transmission.

The new cafeteria is being constructed on the east side of the building near the backside of the gymnasium — adjacent to the music room, where a round-about for student pick-up and drop-off had been installed.

“We are excited for this project because it will alleviate crowding in our Title classrooms and our cafeteria as well as free up space within our school,” KSD Superintendent Lance Pearson said. “It will allow us to provide for the increase in student population we experienced this fall over the next several years.”

This year, despite years of declining enrollment numbers throughout the district, the KSD has seen a 10% uptick in students, including over 100 kindergarten students, most of whom will attend PES.

As this is being funded through CARES Act monies, the project comes without any sort of increased tax burden of the patrons of the Kellogg School District.