A 20,000,00-square-foot expansion to Rumson Country Day School will include additional space for classrooms and athletic facilities, as well as a new library and performing arts center. The upgrades are expected to be completed by September. RUMSON — Rumson Country Day School (RCDS) is in the midst of a capital building campaign to support a 20,000-squarefoot expansion to the Bellevue Avenue campus.

The campaign, “Celebrate Tradition, Embrace Our Future,” began last April and focuses on three phases: new academic space, renovating current facility space and athletic improvements.

Headmaster Chad B. Small explained the upgrades that the construction project will make possible for the 83-year-old building.

“It’s going to do so much for us. We’re getting three science rooms, a new library, new rooms for the arts and so much more,” Small said during an interview Dec. 17.

The current average annual enrollment of 450 students will remain the same despite the expansion, he said.

“We’re not adding any students. We’re just stretching out. It’s so exciting. We’ll do a better job with the kids that we have,” Small said.

The new wing is located to the east of the existing building and will help RCDS overcome the space constraints faced for more than a decade, Small explained.

In the mid-1990s, RCDS increased its enrollment by adding a class to each grade, without adding any classroom space.

“The campaign is really about the relationship between one teacher and one child,” said Small. “It will allow us to give teachers the appropriate rooms for working most effectively with students, getting to know them, understanding their learning styles, their strengths and weaknesses. The new spaces will empower them to take what they are already doing and do it even better.

“The expanded plan allows us the room to work with the students even more personally,” Small added.

The academic enrichment center will also host a new modern library that will give students and teachers access to all of the technological tools that are now the foundation of research and interactive learning, he said.

“All the rooms will be on the cutting edge of technology. We’ve been wired since the early ’90s, but after this, we’ll have no more dead spots,” Small said.

The new building is environmentally friendly and uses solar energy.

“The construction project would allow RCDS to be a better neighbor, as it will improve the flow of traffic. The buses will be moved, and there will be more parking,” Small said. Small spoke about the construction’s progress.

“I was inside it last week, and it’s stupendous. We’re employing local workers that have all been background checked. It’s been pretty calm around here, as the construction has truly not hurt our program at all.

“This is a huge addition and I couldn’t be more excited. We’re on time,” Small added.

Small anticipates the construction on the academic enrichment center to be completed by June 4.

“Then we’ll do rehab to the existing building. We should be all ready to go in September, but we have a lot of work ahead of us,” Small said.A

new performing arts center will enable students to take their productions to the next level as they act on a raised stage, create scenery and costumes and oversee the sound and lighting.

Small said the renovations also include joining same-grade classrooms for better collaboration and class preparation among the various grade levels.

The final phase of the campaign will include improvements to athletic facilities.

The school’s gymnasium will become a multipurpose practice room and life-fitness center. The plan will then be to expand the current physical fitness classes to include aerobics, yoga, wrestling, karate and other indoor activities that current space constraints now prevent.

The campaign became a reality after years of intensive strategic planning involving hundreds of community members, including parents, students, alumni, faculty and administration members, according to a press release from the school.

RCDS class of 2010 participated in a beam-signing ceremony Oct. 30.

The painted and signed steel beam was placed into the steel framework behind the school. The placement of the beam was chosen carefully as an “exposed” beam so that as the new space is completed, the signatures of the class of 2010 will be visible.

RCDS enrolls 450 students in grades preschool eight. The student-to-teacher ratio is 7:1 with an average class size of 15.

RCDS also offers a half-day nursery program and a half-day or full-day pre-K program. Kindergarten is full day. In 1999 RCDS was recognized as a “Blue Ribbon School of Excellence” by the U.S. Department of Education.