Simon says to touch your face. And Gov. Martin O’Malley touched his face to the delight of students at Centennial Lane Elementary School.
Students waved their hands up and down in a “dolphin wave,” patterned after their mascot, and O’Malley followed suit.
Young artists showed off their portraits of him.
The activities from the 635 students were meant to demonstrate their appreciation for a newly renovated school he toured Friday with County Executive Ken Ulman, school officials, and community members.
“The new classrooms will help our students have a healthier environment,” said Hannah Kim, a fifth-grader who acted as the student representative during the event.
The state provided significant funding for the project, which consisted of a 14,000-square-foot addition for five classrooms, three special education resource rooms, a second art room, expanded music room, physical education room and expanded cafeteria, said Principal Florence Hu.
With the additional rooms, the school added a sixth second-grade classroom and a fifth kindergarten room.
“This [total] project was about $16 million with $6 million from the state,” Ulman said.
“Without this contribution, there’s probably no way this project could have happened.”
During the past two years, Howard has received more than $41 million in state school construction money, compared to about $18 million in the two years before then, O’Malley said.
“We’ve been changing the emphasis of building new schools to renovating and modernizing our existing buildings,” Superintendent Sydney Cousin said at the event.
Cousin recently unveiled a $125 million, 2010 capital budget request, including an additional $27 million for the renovations at Mount Hebron High School, which would fund the rest of the $57 million project for expanded and modernized fine arts, athletic and administrative suites and modernized heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.
“Howard County is the No. 1 school system in terms of the achievement of your children,” O’Malley said, noting how 56 percent of Centennial Lane Elementary students were advanced in math and 86 percent advanced in reading on the past Maryland School Assessment.
He also visited Clemens Crossing Elementary School in Columbia later in the day, which is in the midst of renovations to classrooms and other upgrades scheduled to be finished next year.
Before leaving, O’Malley helped plant a tree at each school, signifying the importance of helping the environment.
