The school board for Cornwall-Lebanon School District will unveil recent progress on a master plan for its main campus at a public work session on Monday, Nov. 14.

The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the large-group instruction room at Cedar Crest High School, 115 E. Evergreen Road, Lebanon. Entrance to the meeting room is through Door E, the Alumni Gym, which is across from the stadium entrance.

The main campus consists of the high school, Cedar Crest Middle School, and the Educational Service Center.

Amy Rose Wissinger, communication & media relations coordinator for the district, said the school board voted on Sept. 20, 2021, to contract with Beers + Hoffman Architecture to perform an updated districtwide facility study for master planning related to the campus. The presentation on Monday, she told LebTown, “is one product of that study.”

“This will be the first time that the Board — and the public — will see the architects’ ideas and concepts for the initial phase of the upcoming renovation and construction projects on the Cedar Crest campus,” she said in an email Tuesday.

Wissinger did not reveal further details of the presentation, noting that administrators would be available to discuss the matter after the meeting.

A representative of the architectural firm on Monday will present “ideas and concepts for the initial phase of the upcoming renovation and construction projects on the Cedar Crest campus,” she explained.

‘Infancy stages’

According to a presentation to the school board on Aug. 8 by director of business affairs Jean Hentz, the goals of the renovation project include updating the buildings’ mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, providing additional classroom space at the high school and looking at the district’s longterm needs in terms of enrollment and programs.

Some of the physical systems mentioned have not been updated since the 1960s, Hentz said.

“Right now we are in the infancy stages of the planning,” she told the board in August. Work is expected to begin in the spring and early summer of 2024, she said.

District superintendent Philip Domencic also noted in August that the study examines “different options and scenarios” to help determine what is needed and possible for district growth. Domencic said he anticipates holding further discussion at work sessions in the spring.

“It’s time to get this moving,” he told the board. “A lot of things that are happening out there with building and construction … could impact us, and we’re going to try to stay as abreast of that as possible. … Come November, our plan is to get this moving.”

During a budget discussion at the Sept. 12 work session, Hentz recommended assigning $5.5 million in the general fund to the campus project and transferring $500,000 from a virtual education fund to the campus project as well.

In 2019, the district purchased the 89.5-acre Henry and Sandra Smith Farm located across from the campus.

Cedar Crest High School (and a portion of Cedar Crest Middle School) along East Evergreen Road. (Will Trostel)

Registration is required

Although the public is invited to attend the session, Wissinger said pre-registrations “are requested to assist us in room set up and are needed by noon on Friday, Nov. 11.” Registrations can be submitted online here.

All meetings of the Cornwall-Lebanon school board are livestreamed and then are archived here.

The main campus of Cornwall-Lebanon School District, circa 2018. (Source: wikimapia.org)
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Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Ebenezer was located on the main Cedar Crest campus. We sincerely regret the error.

Tom has been a professional journalist for nearly four decades. In his spare time, he plays fiddle with the Irish band Fire in the Glen, and he reviews music, books and movies for Rambles.NET. He lives with his wife, Michelle, and has four children: Vinnie, Molly, Annabelle and Wolf.

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