Inaugural Mill Road Gallery Walk, ice cream social set for May 20, Election Day

Come for the vote, stay for the art, music and refreshments.

The inaugural Mill Road Gallery Walk will be held May 20, the day of the annual district budget and Board of Education vote, and feature the artwork and talents of Mill Road Elementary School students.

The event, which is scheduled for 4-6 p.m. at the school at 9 Mill Road, will be held in advance of the annual Red Hook Faculty Association Ice Cream Social from 6-8 p.m. The polls will be open inside the school’s grades 3-5 cafeteria from noon-9 p.m.

The Mill Road Gallery Walk will feature artwork from every student grades pre-K through 5, with a special hallway exhibit featuring district art show selections; an art activity station in the grades 3-5 gymnasium, and showcases of the band and chorus.

The artwork will be displayed in the center of the school -- the hallway connecting the pre-K-2 and 3-5 offices, and a small group of students selected by Mill Road's music teachers will be singing and playing their instruments in that space. High school art students, meanwhile, will assist with the art activity in the gym.

Refreshments, funded by the PTA, will include cookies, pretzels, apples and water.

The Gallery Walk is one of several ways in which the district’s art students are being celebrated before the year’s complete. Previously, the LAMS Earth Day Print Show on April 25 featured the artwork of middle school students in an outdoor installation, and the Senior Art Show May 2 provided a platform in the high school’s Performing Arts Center Atrium for around a dozen Raiders to show off their collections.

Coming up, on May 28 a new mural for the high school’s Healing Garden will be unveiled in an 11 a.m. presentation in the school’s lobby. The District Art Show will debut May 30 from 4-6 p.m. May in the PAC Atrium.

The Ice Cream social, held each year on budget and board election day, includes a make-you-own-sundae bar for $1 per bowl. It will be in the grades pre-K-2 courtyard outside the school or, in the event of rain, in the pre-K-2 cafeteria.

The Red Hook Central School District is proposing to voters a $65 million budget for the 2025-26 school year and two seats are open on the Board of Education. There are also four propositions on the ballot, including the acquisition of four electric school buses and a $6.085 million capital improvement project that would, among other projects, renovate the main athletic field between the high and middle schools with a new grass playing surface. In addition to visiting the polls on May 20, early, absentee and military voting is available. Visit the district’s voting webpage to learn more.