ACPS opened the doors of its second new school in a week on Thursday to welcome more than 300 students to their first day of school at the Early Childhood Center (ECC), co-located at John Adams Elementary School.
Early Childhood Center opening today! This is our second new school to open this September! #EveryStudent pic.twitter.com/pZRV1bKm1w
— Alexandria City Public Schools (@ACPSk12) September 6, 2018
Children arrived with parents just after 7:30 a.m. and were already hard at play a couple of hours later. By the time Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings, Jr. made it down the hallway to a classroom serving students with disabilities, children were comfortable sharing a book with their new teachers, playing with toy cars and exploring their new loft reading area.
Look at that beautiful new classroom at the new Early Childhood Center. Students already hard at play on their #ACPSFirstDay #EveryStudent pic.twitter.com/Pu4p8Yq87d
— Alexandria City Public Schools (@ACPSk12) September 6, 2018
The Early Childhood Center is the second school that ACPS has opened this fall, following Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School that opened two days earlier. It will operate as a collaboration between ACPS and The Campagna Center, under the leadership of Heidi Haggerty. The new school will have up to 360 students once the second stage of the construction work is complete.
“We are so excited to be able to offer this preschool opportunity to Alexandria City’s youngest citizens. Our Early Childhood Center is the result of years of collaboration between many different agencies and we are committed to improving early childhood practice not only within our center but at schools and agencies across Alexandria, “ said Haggerty.
The school aims to offer West End students and their families a safe and welcoming space where the needs of the preschool child are the complete focus. This means designing play experiences that develop social-emotional learning, the ability to persist and solve problems on their own, and vocabulary development.
Through the ECC, for the first time, ACPS is able to offer encore classes such as music, physical education and library time to our students with disabilities. These students will also benefit from greater inclusion with students in the Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) program.
Thank to our partners @HeadStartgov and @CampagnaCenter for collaborating to make the Early Childhood Center happen. What a wonderful start for our youngest students! #ACPSFirstDay pic.twitter.com/q1Sk813E1y
— Alexandria City Public Schools (@ACPSk12) September 6, 2018
In October, the school will open its first courtyard outdoor learning classroom called “Owen’s Place.” The garden will offer a dynamic environment for complex and powerful play opportunities to increase the ability of students to learn through play.
With the first stage in the modernization of the new pre-K facility complete, the center now has new bathrooms within a set of classrooms with new flooring, ceilings, lighting and paint. The new shared Welcome Center entrance will serve both the existing John Adams Elementary School and the Early Childhood Center students and staff, and includes a new health suite. The new administrative suites include areas for each administrative team and for counselors, social workers and psychologists.
During the second stage of modernization, which will take place next summer, upgrades will be made to the remaining classrooms and hallways to include new flooring, ceilings, lighting and paint. There will also be upgrades to support Campagna Head Start and VPI programs.
The Early Childhood Center is the result of years of collaborative planning with the City and ACPS partners, such as the Campagna Center, and is an example of the power of collaboration in the delivery of services to our families and commitment to our youngest learners. It will include classroom space for 360 students in the ACPS VPI program, the Campagna Center Head Start program, ACPS Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) and ACPS Preschoolers Learning Together (PLT).