New center built for youngest students

“It’s going to be a jewel in Southeast Missouri,” Dr. Scott Dill, Poplar Bluff R-I superintendent, said about the new Early Childhood Center, which will open next school year.

The facility, which is a separate building connected to the current kindergarten center, will be the first building that is specifically designed with these students’ age range in mind. It will be for 3 to 5-year-olds.

Principal JoAnne Westbrook said the early childhood students have always been lucky enough to have a space from the district, but it has always been housed in facilities that were repurposed for them.

“We’re not making it work, it’s designed to work,” Dill said.

Currently, the Early Childhood Center is housed in three buildings on Main Street. The first was built in the ‘50s, part of the original Mark Twain School; the second was built in the ‘80s and the third was built roughly a decade ago.

Westbrook said being split between the buildings can be challenging, especially with the age group of students. Being part of one, secure building, rather than three with open walkways, is something she’s looking forward to.

Being able to make the move from three buildings to the one, she said, will help level the playing field for students since some are currently in the newer building and some are in the older one.

The current campus is also rather landlocked, she said, without a very good parking situation.

“The streets are very busy in the front, we have that side parking, but then you have to walk across. I think that’s something the parents will notice immediately is a lot more functional,” she said.

The entire new building is neighborhood-themed with cityscapes along the walls in the hallways. They can function similar to corkboard in order to display student projects.

‘Right size’ function

The facilities are also designed to be the right size for students in that age range, with lower toilets and sinks for easier access.

Each classroom will have a bathroom and a sink for the students to use as well as restrooms in the hallways. The classrooms are also designed with a large amount of storage so that teachers and students can keep what they need within easy reach.

Westbrook said one of the things about the layout of the school she is excited about is that standing right outside of the library, near the front entrance to the school, she’ll be able to see down both hallways.

“You can see down the main classroom hallways from one spot,” she said. “It’s really nice, for me.”

The library itself is designed to be a center point of the school to help promote literacy, Dill said. Going with the neighborhood theme, the main desk is circular to mimic a tree, with a straight-bar light above designed to look like branches. The bookshelves along the walls also have reading areas set into them with a lamp and peaked tops to look like houses.

“Not to say that we don’t give attention to all classrooms, but I am an old school librarian,” Dill said. “When I have the chance to design a library, it’s a lot of fun.”

There will also be a multipurpose gym area for students. The room is not FEMA certified, but Dill said it was built to match FEMA standards and be a safe room in the case of severe weather such as a tornado. The ceiling is reinforced with concrete and the windows are hurricane proof.

Easy transitions

The facility is also designed to match the next door kindergarten center, both in outside design and several indoor elements. The student drop off areas will match with a pull up portion for parents. Inside the front door will be similar, with the front office to one side and a nurse’s area to the other.

Westbrook said the goal of this is to make for an easier transition as students move up to kindergarten. Since these teachers also work with a similar age group, having the two facilities next to each other will hopefully aid in collaboration.

Dill said the process has gone smoothly. The groundbreaking for the facility was about a year ago and it will be substantially complete by the end of the year. Students won’t move this school year because the district didn’t want to disrupt them in the middle of the year.

Some work on the facility will also still need to be done. For instance, the playground was not part of the original bid and conversations are still on-going about what it will look like.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of contractors and this has been one of the smoothest builds I’ve ever been involved with,” he said. “Most everything’s gone according to plan. Where we have run into hiccups, the contractor and the architects have been great to collaborate and figure it out to the benefit of the kids.”

Dill said the project is the result of good financial planning by the school district, which was able to pay cash for the building due to savings. This, he said, will save the taxpayers $3 million to $4 million in interest rates over the next 20 years compared to if the project had been done without cash. The original cost estimate for the project was $7,359,088.

“That’s a luxury. I’ve been in this business awhile, you don’t see districts in that position very often,” he said.

Repurposing Mark Twain

This project will allow the district to use the Mark Twain campus for other age groups and other programs. Dill said once this move is complete, the district plans to turn it into an alternative school that’s designed to help the students who are “struggling in the confines of the regular system.” The program is already being piloted with the goal to be able to expand it after the Mark Twain campus becomes available to eventually include about 10% of the fourth to 12th grade students.

Over the past few years, Westbrook said, the district has been able to expand Early Childhood some, to just over 300 students. The new facility is designed to meet that.

The district as a whole is excited about having the facility ready next year. Dill said people with other schools have already asked about coming to visit and learn about how R-I teaches early childhood, even though the building isn’t complete yet.

“There’s a lot of people doing early childhood in Southeast Missouri,” Dill said. “We’re doing it with a little style.”