ECE classroom move postponed

After winter break, the south end of the south campus will be finishing its remodeling and was scheduled to open five new classrooms for the ECE classes. What used to be the district office and MakerSpace was supposed to become a set of new classrooms for children ranging from ages zero to five years old. 

The MakerSpace has been moved into the brand new CTE building, which also plans to be open to students after the winter break.

ECE teacher Connie Sloan’s Childhood Cadet class is currently taking place down the road and across the street from DDHS campus. Students have to leave campus and cross 135th to enter North Powellhurst. With classrooms moving into the south, students will no longer have to leave campus during uncomfortable weather, cross streets, or leave class early to walk back to DDHS campus for buses and other classes.

The decision had been planned for weeks and the other ECE teachers had already begun to move boxes over into the south campus. Assistant principal Valoree Hill told Sloan that only her class would be moving into the south and that the childcare classes will wait until the summer. 

Sloan’s Childhood Cadet Class offers experience in classrooms for children ages zero to five while learning the core basics of childhood education, but with her room being moved to the south campus, the way the class will be run is up in the air. For the second semester of school there may be an ECE class without the aspect of interacting with children.

The new section of the south is closed off to students, who will have to buzz into the foyer to gain access. 

“It is locked off,” said Hill. “It is badge access only, or they would have to be buzzed in, so that it’s secure. It’s only the approved students that should be in there. No one else should have access. And there will be a secretary or a receptionist there, so any community members, families, parents, all of that have to interface with them before they can get access.”

The new classrooms make the ECE classes much more accessible for students, teachers and parents, but may create confusion for class time and daily schedules.  

Overall, the change will be much safer for students in the long run, who no longer have to go out in the rain or street and staff who can work in the same building as their children without having to drive to North Powellurst to contact their children during class.