Throughout the last year, teachers at Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School made do with the space they had – hosting services such as occupational therapy on the auditorium stage and reading classes and of oral expression in a modified custody cupboard.

But a roughly $12 million, two-story expansion of the building completed last summer added eight new classrooms and four smaller rooms to the school, which serves 313 students. These classrooms now accommodate two full-day pre-kindergarten classes, two first grade classes, and four second grade classes. The smaller rooms house support services and an office, school officials said.

It was paid for through a $30 million school district bond that was passed by voters in 2021, said Francesco Ianni, superintendent of the Oyster Bay-East Norwich School District.

The expansion allowed the school to expand its pre-K program, Ianni said.

“This year, for the first time, we are holding full-day pre-kindergarten classes,” Ianni said. “For several years, we’ve been doing a half-day pre-kindergarten, and in talking with members of the community, in talking with parents who were in the district, they felt there was a need.”

That bond included upgrades to the district’s two other schools — Oyster Bay High School and James H. Vernon School, officials said.

Data from the New York State Department of Education shows 155,512 children attended kindergarten statewide for the 2022-2023 school year, including 14,384 on Long Island. A total of 2,257 of these three- and four-year-olds attended half-day pre-kindergarten on Long Island.

At Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School, nearly a third of students were Hispanic or Latino in 2022, 16% were disabled and 13% were English learners.

The new rooms were equipped with resources such as building blocks, books and other necessities in pre-kindergarten classrooms thanks to the Universal Full-Day Kindergarten Expansion Grant at statewide (SUFDPK), which provided the school with $36,000, according to Theodore Principal Devra Small. Roosevelt Elementary School.

Small said some reading and speaking classes were previously taught in repurposed custodial closets and other rooms, which added a layer of difficulty for teachers.

“Our teachers made it work because that’s what teachers do…they taught the kids the best they could in those spaces,” Small said. “But they weren’t designed to be teaching spaces, so it’s very exciting that the link has been passed on and we now have these beautiful new spaces.”

Small said the school’s pre-K program selects students through a lottery system.

Christopher Doss, a policy researcher at Rand, said the national expansion of preschool has caused schools to confront the physical limitations of their buildings. Previous experience at Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School “is not uncommon,” he said.

“Pre-kindergarten classrooms need to be set up in certain ways to be accessible to three- and four-year-olds,” Doss said. “As schools typically launch into pre-kindergarten or adopt pre-kindergarten in their districts, they are often going to have to renovate some of their classrooms and buildings to make them appropriate.”

He said full-day preschool supports parents who face high child care costs. It also has positive social and academic benefits for students, Doss said.

“The theory is that children’s brains are developing so quickly at this age that these learning experiences have an indelible impact,” he said.