WSD Voice - Podcast

This September, Waterford School District invested $30 million in early childhood education when it opened its brand new Stepanski Early Childhood Center - the district’s first building in over 50 years.

In this episode, Interim Superintendent Darin Holley, Stepanski Principal Andrea Bratton, Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Sandy Elka, and Director of Communications and Community Relations Sarah Davis discuss the details of the grand opening and what it took to complete this amazing project. 

Guests: 
Stepanski Principal Andrea Bratton
Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Sandy Elka

Hosts: 
Sarah Davis, Director of Communications and Community Relations
Darin Holley, Interim Superintendent
Jane Tekiele, Video Production Coordinator 

- Hello, welcome to "WSD Voice," a podcast focused on positive and informative news in Waterford School District. I am your host, Sarah Davis, the Director of Communications and Community Relations, and I'm here for season four of this award-winning podcast with my brand new co-host, Waterford School District Interim Superintendent Darin Holley. Darin, I believe this is your first time on the show.

- It is. Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here.

- Of course. So over the summer, our superintendent, Scott Lindberg, whom you regularly saw on this podcast before, decided to retire. As the board of education searches for a new superintendent, Darin is filling in his interim, so we wish Scott Lindberg a very enjoyable and relaxing retirement. Certainly well deserved. Darin, in addition to interim superintendent, though, you are also assistant superintendent of pre-K five, so you have a lot going on. How's that going juggling the two titles right now?

- I was gonna say, it's just like juggling and I'm not a very good juggler. But no, we're doing our best. It really has been a joy. I'm able to see different aspects of our organization that I really haven't seen before. I've done a little bit of everything in this district in my roles. I've been a teacher, I've been in just about every building here. And it's an honor and privilege to be able to sit in for this, but it has been a challenge. It's been a lot of work, but I've enjoyed it. So people have really stepped up, I guess, to get the year started and I've really appreciated the hard work that our people do.

- Good. And one of those things though that you got to do as interim superintendent, was you got to cut the ribbon on our brand new $30 million Stepanski Early Childhood Center on September 14th.

- Yeah. What a great day. And just really proud of the district for its investment in early childhood education and really excited to see what that building will do in the future.

- Yep. And so that's exactly what we're gonna be talking about today on the podcast, the opening of the new early childhood center and Waterford School District's investment in early childhood learning. To help us with this discussion is Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Sandy Elka and Stepanski Principal Andrea Bratton, both of who are also first-time guests. So thank you to both of you for being here today as well.

- Well, thank you. I appreciate you having me here today,

- And thank you for inviting me.

- So I think it's important that before we begin talking about the grand opening and all of that, that we really hear about what Stepanski Early Childhood Center is. So Andrea, can you please explain what the center is and what you guys do there?

- Yes. Stepanski is a preschool for three- to five-year-olds. In those in-school programs, we have our early childhood special education for three- to five-year-olds We have our head start for three- to four-year-olds. We have our Great Start Readiness Program, also known as GSRP, for four-year-olds by December 1st. And we have our tuition-based threes program. We also service families in their homes for our early-on program, for children ages zero to three. We also provide Child Find where Waterford resident families can come in to discuss and determine if their child does have a disability or not. It might be speech, it might be occupational therapy needs, whatever it may be, so that we can help them ensure that their child has the best start possible. We are NAEYC accredited. All of our preschool classrooms use the HighScope curriculum, which is research-based. And we are a community of learners and that includes our students, staff, and families.

- Sounds like a great place with a lot of stuff going on. Very exciting. With that in mind, Darin, in August 2020, our community generously passed $150 million bond. And some of that money was set aside specifically for this big project, to create to the Stepanski Early Childhood Center. At the time, what was the vision for creating this new school and why was it needed?

- Well, first you gotta get through some history. So, quick history. The building was opened in 1945 as William Lake Elementary School. And eventually, it became an early childhood center in 1987. And in 1989, after AJ Stepanski had dedicated many years to serving on our board of education, the board voted to name this building AJ Stepanski Early Childhood Center. And this is the first brand new building that the district has opened in over 50 years.

- Yeah, pretty amazing.

- So the old Stepanski building, and we all loved it. it had a lot of nostalgia in our community, but we found that renovating that building had become increasingly challenging. It was two levels, so it was not ADA compliant and some of the needs of the students made that really challenging to service their needs. You know, buildings that were built at that age, they had one electrical plug in the classroom. So we have a lot more technology needs that rely on electricity. So trying to wire that building with almost one foot thick concrete slabs was very challenging. And renovating that building with the windows and everything, it just, it was time to really think about investing in something different that we could really maximize the space.

- Right. So with all of that in mind, how does the school's new layout and design help for better learning now, Andrea, compared to what you were working with before?

- Right. So as I mentioned previously, we do have our special education program as well. Last year, for example, we had several children on wheels. And now we're on one floor. They could access any part of the building, they could access the playgrounds appropriately. We were very fortunate to have amazing outdoor spaces. We have 88,000 square feet of playground space with 65 new pieces of playground equipment.

- I try them, they work well.

- Yeah, I saw you.

- A lot of that equipment was handpicked by the late Kathy Mailoux, who was a wonderful occupational therapist for the district for many years. In mind, when chosen, were the needs of students in terms of their physical needs, their sensory needs, and all of that. So we're really, really proud of those outdoor spaces as well. We also have, on the inside, our motor skills room so children can move and play and explore their gross motor skills. Also, we have the chemistry kitchen for those extra messy learning experiences and mixing of different concoctions and exploring chemistry in that way. We have our STEM lab, which is for design and engineering experiences and science and math. And then we also have the family welcome area where we greet families in the morning and visitors. So we have a pretty special place that really allows all of our learner's needs to be met and for explorative and really intentional learning to take place in a variety of ways.

- Yeah, it sounds amazing in there, and very intentional in what was picked and how the school was created. Sandy, you focus on things from the operational building perspective. So how is the new building better now from that point of view?

- So when we started the design process, we knew that we needed to move all the early childhood programs into one building. because currently, they were in Stepanski and Leggett That was basic. But as we processed through the design phase, we focused on making sure things like all the classrooms were the same size. That allowed them to be interchangeable. So what many schools do is they would have certain sizes for classrooms, certain sizes for special ed. We got away from that because this allows us to move the classrooms around as we need to do it. So that was one of the big things. But we also went ahead and did multiple playground areas. So basically, when students step out of their classroom, they're in a outside learning environment. So it wasn't like they all had to go to a different place in their facility. They could just walk right outside their classrooms. So part of the new building, which is always great, is being able to include that technology from the start instead of having to shoehorn it and wire it in after. So, you know, we have Promethean boards in the classrooms and we also have multiple cameras to protect the students and the staff.

- Yeah, and I think both you and Darin have mentioned the technology and I believe, I don't know, it was like 11.3 million or maybe even more at some point now that we've invested in technology in the past couple of years. And so when we talk about putting in new technology in these buildings, it's significant infrastructure upgrades. So like you said, already having it available to build in instead of having to add it in makes those improvements a lot easier.

- Yes.

- And they're a lot easier.

- Instead of trying to arrange all the technology around the one plug that was in the classroom, you can actually put it where it makes sense.

- Right, right. So on that note, we're actually gonna take a quick commercial break and we will be right back.

- Hello, Darin Holley here, interim superintendent of Waterford School District. At Waterford School District, we aim to create today's student to become tomorrow's leader, which is why we have recently invested $30 million into a new Stepanski Early Childhood Center. If you are interested in registering your child to attend Stepanski Early Childhood Center for next school year, please call the school at 666-9593 or visit our website, wsdmi.org to learn all about the new facility and the unparalleled learning opportunities that can provide for your child. That's 666-9593 or wsdmi.org. Come join us at WSD where the future is bright.

- Okay, and we're back on "WSD Voice," talking about the grand opening of Waterford School District's new Stepanski Early Childhood Center. So we have heard about how amazing this new school is, but it took time to get to this place. Sandy, after the bond passed, what were some of the next steps that you had to do to start creating this school?

- Well, even though we knew some of the basic ideas of what we wanted in the new building, we still needed to form a stakeholder team, which included staff, parents, community members, board members, as well as our architect, French, and our construction manager, Barton Malow. So that team was able to focus on what building needs we had, as well as the layout of the rooms and other spaces, and even the building colors. So they took us through a lot of work and did a lot of what you see at the buildings. And we had wishlist, like we want the childcare entrance to be near the front so that parents didn't have to go through the building to pick up their children. So some of those things we were able to incorporate in. In addition to the main stakeholder group, we also had other teams, what we call basically functional teams. So they focused on their particular area, like technology. They came in and said, "Where do we need the technology? Where's it gonna go? Where are our closets gonna go? Where do we need everything to go?" And then we had people like our security team, so Jim's looking at where we need to put that, and we got input from the township in Oakland County for those kind of things. We got input from the fire and police departments on where things should go and what they would like in the building. And then we also had our maintenance guys come, so they're working on the HVAC with what they wanted in there. So everybody got to have that time to really go, "This is a new building, we're not having to retrofit things, we can actually do it the way we would like to do it." And some of that's for operational efficiencies, some is just for the learning environment. And then we had a core team, which was also made up of staff that basically kept in touch with everybody and moved everybody along to make sure that all the decisions were being made in a timely manner.

- Okay.

- So then after that, in April of 2022, we broke ground on the project. And since that time, construction was nonstop at the site. Sandy, from a business and operations standpoint, what were some of the biggest challenges that we faced during that time?

- So it's interesting that right at the get-go, because we were doing this during COVID, we found out that the lead times for a lot of our materials were problematic. So one of the first things we had was basically the amount of steel we wanted to do. We just could not get it. And we talked a lot about whether we could wait and we decided that it was not worth it for some of it. So we were able to come up with different designs and that involves our construction manager, architects, as well as the people in the staff in the buildings to say, "Okay, is this something that's gonna affect us in a day to day?" No. So we were able to make those, and that happened basically all along because COVID did put us back on lead times for materials we needed, lead times, and materials we wanted. So we had discussions about that all the time. So we obviously, like I said, had specific meetings with teams so that we could go over these issues and have those discussions about what we wanted to do and how the timelines would be affected. But we also had biweekly construction meetings that oversee all of our construction that were through the bond, and because we had those every week, we were able to address some of these other issues that they came up. So everything from just the flooring lots, did we want to go with different lots or did we wanna wait? To, did we want a different flag pole because the flag pole is taking 16 weeks instead of four weeks? So I would say that it was constant, but luckily, the steel was the big issue at the beginning. Everything else, we were able to basically work through on a timely basis.

- Yeah. And it's great to hear. I mean, of course there's gonna be bumps in the road when you're putting such a huge project together, and it sounds like everyone came together to work on it and figured it out. But I'm sure it was frustrating at times for sure.

- You know, we saw it more as a challenge because we laughed about that there's no blueprint for doing a new building. Well, the last building we did 50 years ago would've never had the technology pieces in it. A lot of the things that we wanted to incorporate wouldn't have been there. So we laugh that even if we had it, it would probably have not been helpful to us.

- Right. Very, very true. And then after all that, this past September 14th, we held our grand opening celebration for the event and it was a huge success. The weather was perfect. Hundreds of people came out. I personally couldn't have been any happier with the way that it went. Darin, what did you think of the day?

- Yeah, it was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining. It was extremely well attended and very well organized and planned. Thank you, Sarah. I mean, it really went without a hitch. We had a great turnout with families, community members. I saw some folks that I haven't seen in like, 15, 20 years in this district. And it was really great to see them come out and see the new facility. We had Sweet Reads there, handing out ice cream and great books. We had donuts with Waterford logos on them. I mean, what a nice touch, and people loved them. And just the community partnerships that showed up to show support and really to see the amazement that people had as they're walking through these spaces. And it really is an impressive site. So I can't think of a time that I've been more proud of this district.

- And with the hope of trying to catch some of that amazement, we went around and interviewed some of the parents and the students that were walking around. So we're going to play that clip right now. We are here with Adam and Juliana at the grand opening of the Stepanski Early Childhood Center. Juliana, what were you just telling me about why you wanted to come here today?

- Because I wanted to play.

- She wanted to play. Dad, what have you thought about, we noticed that you had been out here on the playground for a while, what do you think about the 80,000 square feet of playgrounds that we have here?

- It's pretty impressive that they've done all this. I think they said during the grand opening speech, this is the first new school building in 50 years. So I mean, they definitely put a lot into it, so it's awesome.

- Anything else aside from the playgrounds that you noticed that you thought might be of benefit to Juliana that she might like as a student?

- Everything is fenced off. And so as any parent, especially in this day and age, that's gonna add to our comfort and, you know, knowing that she's safe here.

- All right. Well thank you very much, Juliana. I hope you have a great time during this school year. All right?

- Oh yeah, oh yeah.

- So you have a daughter here. What is her name and what grade is she in? What program is she in at Stepanski?

- Her name is Kelly Russell and she is in the GSRP program and she's pre-K.

- Okay, is this your first year here at Stepanski or year two? First year. Okay. So what are your impressions about, we're here at the opening, what are your impressions with just the event in general?

- I think it was, overall, a great event. It looks like a lot of families came out. We're really excited about all of the free books and even the newer books that they offered as well was really nice, so I think this was really great.

- So I'm assuming that you kind of walked through and toward the building. Were there any rooms or anything that stuck out in particular to you that you thought would be helpful to your daughter as she comes into preschool that you thought was a good advantage to have?

- Well, the facility in general, with it being newer, I think that's just an advantage within itself. Just all the things that come with it. Even in the classroom, like how they have the big flat screen TV, kinda like an easel board, you can draw on it, write on it. And pull up like YouTube, things like that. That's easy access for the kids, I thought was really nice. I like the gym that they have. They do have like a pair of, or they're attempting to have a pair of like rain boots for all the kids to play outside in the rain if they do have it, which I thought was really cool too. So that's really nice.

- All right, Quinn, well thank you very much. We appreciate it. Yep. So again, so much fun that day. And then after the grand opening, students were able to start school on Monday, September 16th. Andrea, how has the new school year been going?

- It has really been wonderful, Sarah. I have to say that the support of central office and the school board and childcare has been extremely helpful, but also just refreshing to know that there's such a care for early childhood in the district. I think that with their support, we've been able to do a lot of things in the building that really supported the function of the building. And in that, we had a very successful start to the school year. Yes, we had a bit more traffic than expected on the first day of school, but we had a lot of very interested and eager grandparents along for the ride as well, which was amazing to see. And they also shared their stories on that day too, of their other children that had gone to the former Stepanski building. But after that, we've settled down, we've gotten into the school year. It has been really going very well. The comradery of the staff to prepare our new spaces has been amazing. We started the school year of this year for the first time with free preschool for all four-year-olds. So anyone who was four before December 1st could get free preschool in Waterford. So really, we've been just working hard on getting that word out and continuing that effort. But I must say, the staff and everyone at central office, the school board, childcare, everyone has been so instrumental in ensuring the success of a wonderful start to the building.

- Good. Glad to hear that it's going so well over there. I know that, like you said, there's been a lot of partners in all of this. Darin, who are some people that we would like to thank?

- Well, first we, we really need to start with this lady right here, Andrea, and her staff. Man, it's so exciting to have a new building, but the minutia of the planning, the preparation, the flexibility, the changes in schedule, it really took a lot of a test in patience in everybody, but man, your staff really stepped up as well as you did, and they were just there. And you can tell that they take great pride in not only the development of that building 'cause they had a hand in it, but then, just as things came together, there were boxes in the hallway the last evening. And I don't know what time people left, but it really was impressive to see all that come together. Our board of education, who a long time ago, really set the vision for allowing us to have this early childhood center. They've really been supportive along the way and I just can't say enough about their support through this and having that vision. Back before we knew COVID was happening, but it really is amazing. And of course, Sandy here, again, dealing with the minutia of the day-to-day, a lot of the things that you had to deal with were not fun. They were not exciting. They're not anything that people would say they want to come to work and do. But you know, anybody that's built a house or known someone who has, it's a huge test in patience, in your mental fortitude and your resilience and just persistence to ensure that things get done in a timely manner and done right. And our community, not only did they pass the bond that allowed this building to be possible, but all those that have been living around the construction zones have really, you know, not all of them were happy on every day, but I really appreciate their patience through this. I think it really adds value to our community and I think they recognize that as well. So we appreciate their support in that and we hope we have a good relationship with them moving forward.

- Yep. Absolutely agree. I thought it would be interesting to just share a couple of quick construction facts before we end the episode for today. The new school was built by Barton Malow and their contractors and it took over a hundred thousand hours and 290 tons of steel to build this facility.

- So I guess you found that steel eventually?

- Yes, we did find steel. We found it in a different form, but yeah, we needed it. The center is over 67,000 square feet, has 31 classrooms, 43 bathrooms, and can fit up to 617 students. A fun fact is the main quarter is the same length as a football field, including the end zones. And during construction, 35 trees did have to be removed, but I think the community should know that we're now in the process of actually planting 332 trees. So once those are all grown in, we'll have even more than was there originally.

- Darin, looking forward, how do you see the early childhood center evolving in the next five or 10 years? And what are your hopes for its long-term impact on the district and maybe even the community?

- Well, it certainly is a great opportunity for our first time to engage with families and students. I mean, what a better building for them to see and be immersed in our community. And ideally, this will help boost our enrollment. You know, coming to a new building is exciting and we've always said that if we can get them to come, then we can get them to stay. And our staff is so dedicated, not just at Stepanski, but all through the district. So if we can get them in the door and provide them a welcoming experience and Stepanski is always known as the happiest place on earth, once they have that taste, they're not gonna wanna leave. So I really think that this is gonna help the whole entire district.

- Wonderful. All right. Thank you Darin, Andrea, Sandy. This is an exciting time in our district's history and I know we're all looking forward to what the future holds. It's gonna be a bright future. This podcast is brought to you by Waterford School District's Department of School and Community Services, and is produced by Video Production Coordinator Jane Tekiele. I am the host of this podcast, Sarah Davis, and you can find all episodes of "WSD Voice" on our website at wsdmi.org or you can tune into 89.5 WHS, Radio Central Multicultural, or any Waterford community cable channel. We also invite you to subscribe to the podcast, which is available on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Amazon Music, and if you watch the recording, on our WSD YouTube channel. We so appreciate you listening today and encourage you to tune into future episodes of "WSD Voice" as we discuss topics geared toward inspiring, educating, and empowering our students, staff, alumni, and community to thrive.