COOPER I.S.D. IS EXPANDING!

Cooper ISD is excited to share the news of several small construction projects that, together, will
end up having a big impact for our students, our staff, and our community. We’ve been thinking
about how best to meet our building and program needs for some time. Recently, our hopes and
plans were given a boost with the addition of grant funding, allowing us to meet these needs without
adding a single cent to the tax rate. All of our construction project pieces are already fully funded,
and we are excited to see our school and programs continue to thrive and flourish!

Our first construction piece will be the addition of two state of the art high school science labs!
Though we’ve taken good care of our high school building, in 1997 the labs were simply not built to
accommodate the interactive and hands on experiments and activities on which our teachers and
students thrive. These new labs will be added onto the 400 hallways (the hallway nearest the high
school parking lot). This addition has the bonus attraction of creating space for two of our fastest
growing career preparation programs, with an added space for Robotics and the ability to move our
incredible mock health clinic equipment to the main building for regular student use and access.

Next, we will move our central office to be near our campuses on the east side of the high school,
with a parking lot addition that will double as needed space for event parking. The icing on the cake
for this part of the plan is that we intend to re-purpose our current office building to accommodate a
school daycare center, focusing on the needs of employees who currently struggle to find care
locally. As the previous Head Start building (not to mention former "homemaking cottage" built by our
own Ag department, in which I myself took classes), we already have a great arrangement complete
with the tricycle path in the back yard. We believe this will not only meet a community need, it will
also help us to recruit and retain our quality staff.

Perhaps one of our most favorite project pieces, will include expansion for our robust Agriculture
department with a Pavilion, Veterinary Technical Laboratory, and a Greenhouse, to boot. The
Pavilion will not only be utilized as an outdoor classroom space, it will double as a great place to
host our county show and similar community events. The Vet Tech Lab will be a fully equipped
space to handle all of our animal science needs that arise when teaching our students how to care
for their animals. The Greenhouse will be connected to the pavilion via sidewalk and will feature
plants planned and grown by our own students! These ag expansion items will also be located east
of the high school, on the southern portion of that lot (nearest our baseball field).

Our construction projects will soon become a beautiful reality, with the items anticipated to be
complete by the end of spring 2023. Look for an announcement and invitation for all to join us for
Ground Breaking on Monday, May 2^nd.  It's a great day to be a Bulldog!

Thank you,
Denicia Hohenberger
Cooper ISD Superintendent