MURFREESBORO — MTSU’s Project Help is taking on a new summer project:
remodeling its main facility on North Baird Lane to give teachers and students
more much-needed elbow room.
As a result, the
Baird Lane preschool programs have temporarily moved across campus to Project
Help’s other headquarters, the Fairview Building on Greenland Drive.
“We will be merging
our three classes into two and using the Child Development Center classrooms
(inside the Fairview facility),” Project Help Director Susan Waldrop explained.
“The changes in the
Baird building are divided into three phases, simply because that seemed easier
for us to make happen.”
The renovations are occurring while the program also
prepares for its annual fundraiser, “Saddle Up for Project Help,” which is set
for Thursday, July 25, at 6:30 p.m. at the MTSU Foundation House on West
Thompson Lane.
Project Help is an
inclusive preschool that has served the MTSU and Middle Tennessee communities
for nearly 30 years. At Project Help, children who have developmental delays
learn and play with those who are developing typically.
Project Help’s
progressive preschool serves children from 15 months to 3 years old. “Project
Help Prep,” which helps 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds get ready for public school,
currently offers a half-day, tuition-only program four days a week.
The
center’s staff, which trains more than 150 student participants each semester, works with parents through
family-support programs that include workshops, one-to-one interactions and
informal training seminars.
The first phase of
summer renovations will remodel Waldrop’s office to accommodate six
workstations for teachers and co-teachers. It also will include renovating the
current copy room, which also houses the media specialist’s work area, into a
teacher workroom and supply storage area.
Phase two will
reconfigure space near the library for the media specialist and replace all
current classroom doors with half-doors to eliminate the need for baby gates.
Both these phases
should be completed this summer, Waldrop said.
A third phase, which
has a late December/early January target completion date, would redo the
current reception area to improve its efficiency.
“This means that for
much of the summer, all Project Help programs will be together!” Waldrop said.
“This will be a blessing in that we can share and learn from each other.
“At least for the
summer, some different folks will be seeing Project Help on a regular basis,
which might lead to more understanding on campus for what we do.”
Project Help’s children are in
classrooms according to age. The oldest students — those between 2 1/2 and 3
years old — are in the “Red Room” in the Baird Lane facility. Toddlers from 24
to 30 months learn in the “Blue Room,” and the younger children (15 to 24
months) use the “Green Room.”
On Friday mornings, a new one-hour
“Mommy and Me” program is being offered for families with babies 4 to 15
months of age to have fun and learn from each other.
In the Fairview
Building, “Project Help Prep” also operates a weekday inclusive preschool for
families who have children from age 3 to kindergarten. It’s a tuition-based
option for children eligible for a public school Individualized Education Program
as well as for those who are developing at or above age-appropriate levels.
Once the remodeling
is complete, Waldrop and Project Help’s office/outreach coordinator, Kerry
Boylan, will move into the office used by “Blue Room” teachers, while the
current “Green Room” office will become a physical therapy area for the
children. The “Red Room” office will become a small multipurpose room.
Ultimately, Waldrop
said, the renovations will enable Project Help to expand to serve more Project
Help Prep children, “who, as early- to mid-3-year-olds, will be a nice fit for
the enlarged Red Room.
“Our research
indicates that late twos and threes can benefit greatly from the interplay in
an inclusive program,” she continued. “We'll have continued opportunities to
build more proficiency and interaction into our teaching teams. And
accommodating more Prep children will bring in additional money to pay for teaching
positions.”
For more information
about Project Help, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/projecthelp.
For tickets and more details about the July 25 “Saddle Up for Project Help”
fundraiser, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/projecthelp/saddleup.php
or call 615-898-2458.
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