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HERNANDO, Miss. (AP) — Outdoor reading spaces have become the newest trend at DeSoto County schools.
The Commercial Appeal (http://bit.ly/1X9fM7O ) reports that the school board approved a reading gazebo at Hernado Middle School last month.
When chairwoman Ann Jolley presented the request, she noted that she had attended the dedication of an outdoor pavilion at Horn Lake Intermediate School the same day. Its planned uses include outdoor reading.
The Hernando Middle School Parent-Teacher Association offered to build and landscape a gazebo and donate the $5,000 project to the school system, associated superintendent Thomas Spencer said.
An auto dealer gave $32,000 to create the pavilion at Horn Lake, which has 1,100 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders.
The roof shades wooden benches that convert to tables when the backs are flipped down.
"This campus is beautiful and spacious, and we're thankful for it," Principal Rosie King's said during the dedication. "But in many ways, it still looks like a middle school. We believe this pavilion is the beginning of making our school look more like an elementary school."
Planned uses include reading, hosting parent picnics and occasionally having an outdoor cafeteria.
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