Last week, we celebrated the completion of the renovation of Chapel District Elementary School, a project more than five years in the making. Standing in that beautiful new space, surrounded by students, staff, families, and community members, I kept coming back to one thought: there is simply no way to adequately thank everyone who had a hand in getting us there.
This project began for me in 2021 with the feasibility study and continued through the educational specifications process and a committee that included district and Board representatives as well as members of the Chapel community. We reviewed proposals, helped select the firms that would design and manage the project, worked through countless decisions, and made sure the people who knew and loved Chapel had a voice in its future.
I have represented the Chapel District on the Board of Education throughout this entire process, and this project has been especially important to me. I knew we had an incredible opportunity to give our students and staff the building they deserved, but also a responsibility when changing a place that means so much to so many people. I was often a persistent voice for protecting the character of Chapel, and I am incredibly proud that we did.
Things that might have seemed small on architectural plans weren’t small to the people who love this school. The Dulin ball fields behind the building mattered. The mosaics created by years of Chapel students mattered. The familiar pieces connecting today’s children to those who came before them mattered. We wanted to make Chapel better without erasing its history, and I am grateful our architects at Hord Coplan Macht understood that assignment.
Whiting-Turner turned those plans into the school we see today, all while working around an active elementary school. Project manager Lindsay Hill, who also happens to be a Chapel parent, brought another layer of personal investment to the work. After years of planning and construction, we completed the project on time and not a penny over budget, something I am particularly proud of given the size and complexity of the undertaking.
The State of Maryland, through the Interagency Commission on School Construction, provided critical support, as did the Talbot County Council. And behind every local dollar are the taxpayers of Talbot County, who invested not just in a building, but in generations of children who will learn there. I am deeply grateful for that investment and partnership.
The administrators, teachers and staff at Chapel spent years teaching children in the middle of a major construction project, adjusting to noise, temporary spaces, and changing routines while continuing to make school feel normal for the children walking through the doors each morning. They deserve an enormous amount of credit and gratitude.
But more than anything, this project belongs to the Chapel community. Families have been connected to this building for years. Former students now return as parents. People care about the fields, mosaics, and classrooms because those places hold pieces of their own stories. Community members showed up, spoke up and reminded us what mattered. We listened, and the building we celebrated last week is better because of it.
Helping shepherd this project from its earliest conversations to completion, in the community I was elected to represent, will always be one of the things I am proudest of from my time on the Board of Education.
This project is also a reminder that there is a lot to be proud of in Talbot County Public Schools. We are making real progress, and Chapel is one very visible piece of that larger story. There is more work to do, but there is also so much good happening in our schools. I hope we remember to celebrate that, too.
Years from now, most people won’t remember the feasibility studies, funding requests, committee meetings or construction schedules. They shouldn’t.
They’ll remember their teachers. Their friends. Field days and concerts and classroom celebrations. They’ll remember the people who made them feel safe and known and loved inside that building.
And someday, some of the children walking those halls today may come back through those same doors holding the hands of their own children.
When they do, I hope they recognize it.
I hope it still feels like home.
To everyone who trusted us with this school, and to everyone who worked alongside me for the last five years to make this vision real: thank you.
I could not be prouder of what we built together.
Emily Jackson is Talbot County Board of Education President and represents District 4
2 Responses
Thank you so much for your beautifully written article about the Chapel Elementary renovation. As a parent of two former students at the school, my wife and I are incredibly grateful for your dedication to the school and the community. We truly appreciate how hard you fought to preserve the school’s unique character, history, and cherished traditions. Thank you for listening and for giving our children such a wonderful, safe place to learn that still feels like home. I’m sure the “Cheetahs” are loving the new digs!
This is a campaign speech that’s attempting to put lipstick on a dire situation.
* Only about 30% of elementary students are proficient in math.
* At the middle-school level, math proficiency falls to only 13.8%.
* High-school math proficiency is only 20.9%.
* ELA fewer than half of elementary and middle-school students are proficient.
* High-school ELA rises to 59.7%.
Yet the graduation rate is 97%.
This is a colossal failure of the children in Talbot County.
Time for Emily Jackson, whose husband Phil Jackson is the Chairman of the Talbot County Democrat Central Committee, and Amy Dodson to retire.
We need new leadership to actually educate the children of Talbot County.
Elect Mike Butler, Lisa Hayes and Anne Rosen if you want to bring back actual education for the children.