CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Gregory-Portland ISD is beginning construction on a $54 million Early Childhood Center.
The school will provide hands-on learning opportunities in museum-like classrooms. This will be the only campus of its kind in the entire state of Texas that supports both pre-kindergarten and kindergarten grade levels for early learning in one school.
Superintendent for GPISD, Michelle Cavazos spoke with 3NEWS and said there will be state-of-the-art classrooms in the new facility.
New Early Childhood Center in Gregory-Portland ISD will teach kids in immersive, museum-like classrooms
"This is a super exciting project, not just for our community, but also our region, and potentially nationally. We want to inspire our kids to see the possibilities for whatever is out in the future for them. And then also to accelerate their language acquisition." Cavazos said.
Director of early childhood for the district, Robin Rice, told 3NEWS these classrooms will be immersive. Rice explained, "All of our theme-based rooms reflect the real world. And because of that, we're connecting what they'll be doing all through their school years,"
The district is seeing projected increases in student enrollment this year, so the school board approved funding for eight additional classrooms, which would allow 175 more seats for 3 and 4-year-olds.
"This gives our youngest kids the opportunity to learn vocabulary skills and not through a worksheet. They learn best by doing and interacting," Cavazos said.
The largest goal that goes into a project of this magnitude, is inspiring the newest generation of thinkers.
"Broadening their horizons about what else is in the rest of the world that they can be a part of. And what that may mean for them personally in careers down the road," Rice added.
Construction for this $54 million project is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2024.
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