"But Wait, There's More!"

When you see the title of this post, do you automatically envision Billy Mays hawking some item that you simply can not live without on the Home Shopping Network? He made popular the concept of adding bonus items to orders. We have our own “But wait, there’s more” to share with our school families. We have been talking about the new area called the HUB since August. This new space will soon house a new state-of-the-art library and STEM space as well as a new Learning Center. The generosity of both current and former school families, as well as our fundraising focus this year, are making this space become a reality. Many (and I mean MANY) hours of planning have happened over the last few months and now the time for construction is here and we are VERY excited. Over the last few months, plans have been drawn and finalized, the contractor has been selected, furniture has been ordered, and we expect construction to begin on this project in the next week or two. After months of dreaming about this space, we are finally ready to see progress!

The purpose of this post is to share the “but wait, there’s more” piece that we are also very excited about. In addition to the newly designed and constructed HUB space, we have also been working with our partners at Brainerd Baptist Church for some other significant changes that will be taking place this summer. Earlier today the members of the church overwhelmingly approved a new project of their own that will significantly change and upgrade their children’s space that is used each Sunday. Specific details of the church’s plans can be found here. One of the main goals of the church’s new plan was to update their space and also move all of the children’s classes to the same area on our ground floor. This move will create additional new space for church growth that is specifically designed for young children. It will also increase the church’s ability to make the children’s space more inclusive and safe. The space the church is remodeling also includes the space where our main school offices are currently located. This project gave the school the opportunity to think strategically about where our main offices would best located to serve both our students and families well. We are excited to announce that the main school offices are relocating to the bottom floor by the entrance next to the playground. The newly designed school office space (see plans) will use the current classrooms of Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Duble, and Mrs. Hellmann. Included in this office space is a newly designed space for student health. We will shift all of our classes on the bottom floor down the hall, and our first grade will be moving up to the 2nd floor in new classes that will be wrapping around our new HUB area. We have worked closely with the first grade team on the design of their new space. Another significant aspect of this project is that it marks the first time in our school’s history that learning space is being designed from the ground up for the education of young children. Additionally, there will be a new upper school office space constructed on our second floor (see plan below) to serve the students and teachers on this level.

While this part of the plan may be new to our school families, we have actually been working on this addition for months. As we approach the end of the school, a major part of this plan will be relocating 12 teachers in a fairly quick fashion. Construction will begin immediately on the new HUB and first grade classes with the hopes that this space will be done at the end of May. The next phase will be the construction of the offices for school, with the final phase covering the new children’s space for the church. We will be scheduling days where parents can help us with this enormous undertaking. We are also still raising money to help make this space incredible for our students. Our upcoming auction will play a significant role in this funding. I hope you are making plans to attend this special evening. We will be posting updates to the Hub section of our website as well as this blog. We can not wait for our students to use these amazing new spaces.