Angel Johnson is about to get a lot busier – and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Director of the Warren County R-III Early Childhood and Special Education (ECSE) program said she’s excited about the move the program she oversees will undertake, hopefully for the start of the 2026-27 school year, when the new Daniel Boone Elementary opens its doors.

Hopewell Academy Early Childhood Center will occupy space in the New Daniel Boone Elementary building for the 2026-2027 school year while the road expansion is completed to accommodate the current Daniel Boone Elementary students.

Hopewell will be able to expand to full capacity once in the new building after the summer of 2027, when the full move will take place, with Hopewell students moving to the current Daniel Boone and Daniel Boone students moving to the new building.

When finished, the relocation of students to the new school at the corner of Highway 47 and Ash Road will mean that the current Daniel Boone site at 813 Vosholl Road will become the district's new home for ECSE facilities.

“It will drastically change the model,” said Johnson of the expansion of space the move will allow for. “We currently have 122 children on our waiting list. We can’t place them because while we have a Peer model (one-to-one special education to students without special needs), we’re a special education facility first. We can’t enroll every student to have the 50-50 ratio.”

Johnson said that at the district’s current ECSE facility at Hopewell Academy, three classrooms can hold 10-15 students each, another can hold eight students, and a fifth classroom is only big enough for six students.

Johnson said the Daniel Boone facility will drastically change how things are done at the ECSE.

“It’s all about the square footage,” Johnson said. “When we do (move), the change won’t be all at once. We’ll have to add staff, which will allow us to add more programming. We currently have two half-day sessions and (with the new location), we’ll be able to add full-day sessions. We are limited on the amount of space we have to serve the community. I don’t know that the community is aware of the constraints we currently (face).”

Johnson added that, in the district's long-range planning for the new facilities scope, the ADA-free and reduced lunch program would grow with the opening of the new elementary school.

Additionally, the district is on track to offer daycare for staff members' children in the future.

The district will add the ADA pre-kindergarten classrooms and the staff daycare for children for the 2027-2028 school year. 

“We’re looking to offer it for children ages six weeks to three years,” Johnson said. “We have to figure out the logistics, but that is the plan.”

When the ECSE makes its move, the district’s Youth in Need program will occupy the space the ECSE currently uses.

District Superintendent Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith said the advanced timetable for the program's expansion is, indeed, welcome.

“We’re very excited to offer our early childhood special education services one year earlier than expected,” Klinginsmith said. “I would like to thank our general contractor and the trades for working so effectively to give us access to the building earlier than expected.”