The Common Good is renovating some of its space to help make room for its community programs. It doesn't have dedicated classroom space for middle and high school students, just elementary kids, but that will soon change.

Construction is going on right now to add four new classrooms and some lounge space to feature programs focused on enrichment in literacy, education, and entrepreneurship for those older students.

Thanks to some ARPA funding, and support from the city and the community, the Common Good hopes to keep more students in these programs even as they get older because executive director Stephen Pyle said there are big benefits for students in the organization's programs, like higher attendance and literacy rates in school.

"We want to keep that momentum going with those students. We focus on literacy, leadership, and entrepreneurship and continuing that academic journey for these students and giving them a safe place to learn, a safe place to come to," Pyle said.

Pyle said he also hopes this new space will allow the older students to continue to grow after school and succeed both in school and beyond.

"We want to be a part of supporting these middle school and high school students as they go through school and as they graduate high school and moving onto the next thing in their life, whether that’s pursuing more education or whether that’s getting a job. We believe a lot of the enrichments that we do here can support that," Pyle said.

The Common Good hopes to complete the expansion before the year's end.