by Moira Cullings
moira.cullings@theleaven.org
SHAWNEE — Equipped with yellow hard hats and miniature shovels, a handful of children at the St. Joseph Early Education Center (EEC) here helped break ground on a new building that will benefit them and their community for generations to come.
“It’s good to be with you and with the little tykes over here helping us out,” exclaimed Archbishop Shawn McKnight to those gathered at the groundbreaking on Sept. 9.
“I’m very grateful for your investment in your Catholic school,” he said.
The archbishop blessed the grounds where the new and improved EEC will be constructed, with assistance from Father Keith Chadwick and Father Brent Stull.
“This is a big moment for our parish and our community to be beginning this new stage of our campaign,” said Father Nathan Haverland, pastor of St. Joseph Parish.
Former pastor Father Scott Wallisch echoed the excitement.
“This ‘front porch’ of St. Joseph as we have called it — I’m very excited for it to be an avenue to bring families into this parish so that they can encounter Jesus Christ here,” he said.
Modern transformation
St. Joseph’s EEC provides year-round care for infants as young as four months old up to preschool-aged students.
It’s currently located in the former St. Joseph High School building, which was built in the 1950s, and is spread out with multiple entrances, exits and staircases.
It will be transformed into an accessible, single-floor facility with the capacity to serve 172 children.
The project will include 14,000 square feet of new construction and approximately 1,500 square feet of remodeled area.
“This new early education center is going to be a remarkable facility — the only one in the archdiocese that will care for children on the scale that we’re building here at St. Joseph,” said Libby Knox of Knox Development, capital campaign consultant.
The parish’s preschool moved into the former high school in 1988, and it began offering infant and toddler care in the mid-1990s.
As the center has expanded its offerings, its needs have also grown.
“With aging infrastructure, failing mechanical equipment [and] accessibility issues for teachers, parents and students, the building needed significant improvements and modernization,” said Bob Bryon, chair of the St. Joseph Building Committee.
The committee, which is overseeing the project, is comprised of parish volunteers with expertise in construction, engineering and childcare centers.
Straub Construction is the general contractor. HTK Architects; Schlagel and Associates Civil Engineering; Bob D. Campbell & Co.; and Smith & Boucher are also providing services.
Meeting the need
The demand for childcare in Shawnee is high.
According to Kansas data reports, only 55% of the need is being met.
Susan Brown, assistant director of the EEC, said its location makes St. Joseph the perfect place for an early education center.
“We’re located in between those corridors of 35 and 435 [interstates],” she said, “so it’s a place where we can spread outside [and serve the wider] community.”
EEC director Kristan Mora emphasized the added benefits of having a Catholic childcare center in the city.
“A lot of parents are thinking [that] developmentally and physically and academically we’re preparing them for each next step,” she said. “But a lot of times, too, we’re preparing them spiritually.
“We’re setting that foundation of their relationship with God and introducing it at an age-appropriate level.”
Even children who don’t go on to attend St. Joseph School will be set up for success, said Mora.
“They have that foundation that they started here, building that relationship with God,” she said, “and they can foster it wherever they go.”
Mora is excited for the next chapter at St. Joseph.
“With the new building, we’re going to be able to continue the mission and keep serving the families and hopefully welcome new families to start bringing in different generations,” she said.
The renovation is expected to be completed by next September, and Brown, who has been at the EEC for 31 years, can’t wait.
“The payoff is going to be so worth it with this,” she said.
