CROSSVILLE — Pleasant Hill Elementary students and faculty have been waiting for three years for funding to be appropriated and work to begin on a long-awaited addition to the school.

"At that time, the computer class, art and music programs were working from carts," explained Director of Schools Aarona VanWinkle Friday during a tour of the facility. "There was also a floating second-grade class until about January of that school year."

A preliminary plan was approved by the Cumberland County Board of Education two years ago. That plan includes a two-story addition in place of the old Pleasant Hill School. The old building, which was constructed in 1950 after the county assumed operation of the school, is used for storing some equipment and text books. However the building is in disrepair, with portions of the floor falling through and moisture coming through the block walls.

Principal Mary Ann Huff said, "The new addition will solve our space problems on a longer term than the last addition."

The school was bursting at the seams just a few years ago, and though the student population is lower this year, students move in and out of the area throughout the year and the population can change quickly.

Huff told the building and grounds committee of the Cumberland County Board of Education, "Right now, we are in better shape in our student population than we have been for the past year or two. At one time we were at 635 students and we were clearly running over each other every where we turned."

The school has a current student enrollment of 595 students, and through juggling schedules was able to provide career and technical education classes to its middle school students this year, programs that had not been available due to space limitations before.

The art program has been operating from a cart for many years. Teacher Lisa Hill stores supplies in two music practice rooms with paint and paper and other art supplies scattered around the school.

There is a kiln and darkroom for the school's art program, but because the classroom space has been assigned to other programs, Hill hasn't been able to use those for the students.

"I don't have a place to dry the clay before firing it in the kiln," she said. "We had fundraisers for two years to get the kiln and I've only been able to do five firings."

There is only one science lab in the building. Plans are to add a science lab and a career and technical education (CTE) classroom in the new addition. The CTE teen living program needs water, counter space and proper connections for appliances including a range, oven and clothes washer and dryer.

The science lab is currently used for teen living classes because it is the only classroom with water available. But that water is cold. Students cook using hot plates and microwaves. The agriscience class uses teacher Jaime Atkinson's class during the afternoon when students are in special areas.

"The kid's enjoy it, and we make it work," he said, noting they had moved a desk in for the teacher to use.

Tables are used in some hallways for volunteers or teacher assistants to work with small student groups. Speech classes are conducted in the old teacher's lounge and special education testing or private counseling is also conducted there.

New bleachers were installed in the gymnasium several years ago, but about four rows of bleachers were lost to make a place for a landing at the second-floor doors. The gym can seat about 460 students and the bleacher steps are quite steep.

Storage continues to be a problem at the school. The stage in the cafeteria, which had been used for class performances and small student assemblies or recognition programs is housing coolers and refrigerators.

"We would love when the new addition comes along to move this all out and use this for performances again," Huff said.

The faculty and staff use every nook and cranny of the school to store equipment. Audio visual and recycling bins are kept in a hallway near Huff's office. Everything is kept on a cart and can be rolled out of the way should there be an emergency. The custodian supplies are kept in two small closets in the restrooms and two other closets in the rest of the school. The largest is used for tile buffing machines, while the other storage spaces are areas of about 5 feet by 8 feet. The lead custodian's office space is used to store athletic equipment, as there is no storage in the gymnasium.

The school has one portable classroom, which is used for the reading program. It had housed a third grade classroom, but the fire marshal did not want more than 20 students in the building at one time. This meant Huff had to reconfigure classroom assignments. The portable classroom also houses the school's supply of copy paper, which is ordered yearly to provide the school system with the greatest discount possible.

A teacher's workroom was converted to a pre-kindergarten class, housing 14 students. Most elementary schools are able to offer at least 20 spots in their pre-kindergarten programs. The teacher workroom was moved across the hall, displacing a storage area.

The computer lab was returned to a dedicated classroom space this year, alleviating the need to use part of the library for computer classes and moving computers from class to class on a cart. The school's inventory of NEO learning devices, however, have no dedicated storage area and are classrooms and kept in hallways.

The main portion of the building was built in 1981 with an addition built and opened in 2002. That addition, however, only addressed the immediate needs of the school.

"This was full before the first block was laid," noted Darci Bernabei, assistant principal.