The St. Michael’s Early Learning Center, currently located in the basement of Hamel Hall, provides St. Michael’s faculty and staff, as well as members of the surrounding community, with a day care on campus. Renovations will begin at a new North Campus location this July, in hopes of moving the center out of Hamel, says Cindy Beaudoin-Valyou, assistant director of the center.
Coming out from underground
Since its opening in 1982, St. Michael’s Early Learning Center has been located in the basement of the Hamel residential building.
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A staircase leads to the basement of Hamel, the current location of the Early Learning Center. (Photo by Kaitlin Couillard) |
Shedding the basement location is the biggest benefit of moving, Beaudoin-Valyou says. The change will provide natural lighting and easier access to an emergency exits, Beaudoin-Valyou adds. The current location has one window emergency exit for the 3 to 5- year old children.
“The infants have to be carried up a flight of stairs to the dorm doors in the back and then out,” Beaudoin-Valyou says, “[In the new building] they will have to go down a few stairs to get out, but it's only five or six stairs.”
The new location will be the same size as the current space and will have the capacity to house the same number of children, 42, Beaudoin-Valyou says.
An additional benefit of the new space is that there will be walls separating the children by age groups. The current building only has dividers, such as curtain and bookshelves, separating the children, Beaudoin-Valyou, says.
“The pre-school group will be in a self-contained room,” Beaudoin-Valyou says. “The babies have their own space here and they will have their own space there because their schedule is different than everybody else’s.”
The 1 1/2 to 3 year olds will still share a space, but dividers will be used to reduce the noise level, Beaudoin-Valyou says.
The center has been trying to relocate for several years, Beaudoin-Valyou says. To find an empty lot requires time, she says.
Approximately 50 St. Michael’s students live over the center. Sometimes the students can be very noisy, but this year is an improvement from last, she says. In the past, the center has experienced drummers playing at 1 p.m.; this is naptime for the children, she says. Last year there was also an incident with a skateboarder.
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Paintings hang from pipes in the center, next to a window that looks out into darkness. (Photo by Kaitlin Couillard) |
“(He would skateboard) all the time and it was very loud; sometimes he would fall,” Beaudoin-Valyou says, “Instead of using his door he would use a window and climb in and out of his room.”
Physical Plant had to come and put in screens almost every week because the student would kick them out, according to Beaudoin-Valyou. Some days he would have friends over and you could see them all jump out the window, she says.
Dollars and cents
When the Early Learning Center was founded by Jenny Cernosia, Judy Hillman, Mike Samara and Lima Ruolf in 1982, there were three children and two staff members, Beaudoin-Valyou says. Since then, the number of children has steadily increased.
“People come in here, they look at the space and say ‘Ugh, you are underground,’ Beaudoin-Valyou says. “But then they have other friends that have said to them ‘this is great. This is such a good program.’”
Parents end up bringing their children here and love it, Beaudoin-Valyou says.
All in the community
Seventy-five percent of the children currently enrolled at the Early Learning Center are those of Michael’s faculty and staff, Beaudoin-Valyou says. The children’s ages range between 6 months to 5 years old, and they are separated into four different age groups.
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Dividers, such as these, currently separate age groups rather than walls. (Photo by Kaitlin Couillard) |
Nathaniel Lew, assistant professor of music at St. Michaels College, sends his son Max to the center. Although he says he is not overly concerned with the center’s current location, it will be much more pleasant being above ground with more windows and more natural light, he says.
“I am very excited because I know the staff is excited [about the new place],” Lew says.
MOVE director Heidi St. Peter is also excited for the move, but the staff has done a great job with the space they were provided, she says. St. Peter sends her daughter and her son to the center. When her two children come home, all they can talk about is their teachers and and going back, St. Peter says.
“[The center] is a second home,” she says. “Their teachers are wonderful role models, and are friends to my kids."