Kingsbury Country Day School, a charter public school located at 5000 Hosner Rd. in Addison Township, is about to get a bit bigger over the summer.

On Friday, June 16 – the last day of school – a ground-breaking ceremony was held for an expansion project that includes constructing two new classrooms, tripling the size of restroom facilities and enclosing the breezeway that connects the main building (or south campus) with the Justin A. Schwartz Center.

“This will allow Kingsbury the ability to continue to teach in a collaborative environment and provide much-needed space for our new students,” said Mark Fleischer, chairman of the Kingsbury Trust Board, who spoke during the ceremony.

“It goes without saying that our efforts to expand would not be possible without the active support of the charter (school) board, the KPA (Kingsbury Parents Association), our construction manager Andy Donato (and) our banking partners (from) Oxford Bank.”

Each new classroom will be approximately 720 square feet and capable of accommodating 20 students.

The expansion will cost approximately $500,000, according to Howard Dibble, vice chairman of the Kingsbury Trust Board and chairman of the buildings and grounds subcommittee.

Dibble said half of the project is being funded via a mortgage from Oxford Bank, while the other half is coming from a combination of fund-raising efforts, donations, the capital fund and the Kingsbury Trust’s leasing of the 100-acre grounds and buildings to the charter school.

But this is just Phase I.

In the coming years, the second and third phases will add four more classrooms to Kingsbury.

“The total expansion, when were done, will be $900,000 to $1 million,” Dibble said.

“We still have a long way to go over the next few years,” Fleischer said.

When all three phases are complete, Kingsbury will have six additional classrooms, enabling the school to accommodate a total of 360 students, ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade.

“When we became a charter school, our goal was to grow, but not become too large,” explained Tom Mecsey, the outgoing head of school. “We always knew that we didn’t want to have any more than 20 kids in a class and we always knew we didn’t want to grow any bigger than two classes at every grade level.”

It’s been years since Kingsbury expanded its facilities.

The last time was an addition to the original schoolhouse (or north campus) completed in 2000. Part of the original schoolhouse was constructed in 1868.

Before that, it was the addition of the Justin A. Schwartz Center, dedicated in the fall of 1998. This serves as Kingsbury’s gymnasium and performing arts center.

Kingsbury Country Day School opened in September 1953 as an independent (private) school. It operated that way until 2013 when it became a tuition-free, charter public school for K-8 students.

The school derives its name from Alonzo Kingsbury, son of Addison’s first township supervisor, who, in 1861, deeded the township a parcel of land with the restriction that it be used as the site of a school. A log schoolhouse was built a few years later and named Kingsbury.

That first school burned to the ground shortly after opening and a new frame-structure, one-room schoolhouse was erected in 1868. It was utilized until 1932 when it closed.

It stood abandoned until 1952 when Carlton and Annette Higbie bought it, leased the land and the following year, re-opened Kingsbury as an independent school.