Republic community gets to see Early Childhood Center at grand opening

Former Early Childhood building on Main Street will become district's central office

On Thursday, Aug. 18, the Republic R-III School District opened their new Early Childhood Center (ECC) to the families of the students who would be attending there so they could meet their children’s teachers and see where their children would be attending class. The ECC was opened again on Tuesday, Aug. 30, this time to the entire community.
Nikki Faith, district communications specialist for Republic R-III, said the purpose of the open house was to let the citizens of Republic see what their tax dollars are being used to fund.
“Tonight's event is for the community to come see this,” she said. “We know that our voters passed the bond that funded this project and this building, and so (we’re) just inviting them in so that they can see this building. It's a really big step for our district, so we wanted to invite our neighbors in to see it as well.”

Community members come to see the building
One of the community members who came to the grand opening was Morgan Hardy, who brought along her 18-month-old daughter, Rogan. While Rogan is currently too young to attend school, Hardy said she wanted her daughter to see the school building she would be attending one day.
“We’re pretty new to the Republic area,” Hardy said, “and this is one of the big things that she is going to grow up with (and) the kind of community that she’s going to start out in, and so I just wanted her to see this building.”
Another community member who came to view the ECC was Chelsea Malicoat, a former employee of the school district. Malicoat, who brought her son, Cruz, 5, and daughter Shaylyn, 2, said she came to see the building out of curiosity.
“I actually used to work here,” she said, “and I quit to stay home with my babies, so I just came in to check out the building.”

New building allows district to serve more students, offer more educational services
Faith said the new ECC allows the district to serve more preschool-aged children, all in one building.
“Previously, our Early Childhood education department served 90 students in multiple locations,” she said. “The former EC had only four classrooms, so other students utilized classrooms at two of our elementary schools. With the new building, we're currently serving 250 of our youngest learners all in one space.”
Additionally, said Faith, the new ECC allows the district to offer their preschool students more educational services as well.
“Not only are we able to provide access to early education for more than double the number of students, we're able to offer early childhood special education services in the same building as well,” she said. “That includes speech therapy, physical therapy and occupational therapy. In addition, a major component of Early Childhood Education is social-emotional learning, which teaches young learners how to work together, how to process emotion and how to interact with others their age. Now that all of our Early Childhood students are in one building, they will have opportunities for more of these experiences, which will provide them even more preparation for kindergarten.”

Old building won’t sit empty
As for the former Early Childhood building, Faith said it wouldn’t be sitting empty; it is going to become the district’s new Central Office.
“The old Early Childhood building at Highway 174 and Main Street will be converted into our new Central Office,” she said. “Construction has already started there. We plan to move Central Office operations into that space in late December. The current Central Office, located on the back of Price Elementary, will then be remodeled into more classrooms for our elementary students.”