CRAB ORCHARD - Revenues collected from the newly implemented 1 percent countywide sales tax allowed Crab Orchard school officials to open two new classrooms today, one for Pre-K and one for kindergarten students.

"This allows the elementary school to now offer two kindergartens and two first-grade classes instead of one," said Superintendent Derek Hutchins. "Each class now has between 15 and 17 students. Without the support of the voters of Williamson County and their approval of the sales tax, this much-needed addition for students would not have been possible.

"Not only was the school district able to build classrooms, but we were also able to do so even though we lowered our property tax rate by over 36 cents (per $100 of assessed valuation. The Board of Education is committed to providing small class sizes to our lower grades in an effort to keep the quality of education high for our young students."

Kindergarten teacher Gretchen Harris was pleased with the change.

"It's great," she said. "We'll be able to split the class and have 15 kids. We have nice, big classrooms with a lot of extra space we didn't have before."