Midland College to upgrade its pre-kindergarten academy

ODESSA, Texas (KOSA) -Midland College plans to upgrade its pre-kindergarten academy to better children’s education.

They also will include a program that will benefit people who want to teach children.

Although the Midland College pre-kinder academy expansion is still in the early stages at the moment, there is a big piece of land and piles of dirt.

But, in a years time, the empty land will soon be a two story building 60,000 square foot structure in Midland Colleges main campus.

Midland College’s current pre-k program has 68 seats, but with this upgrade, it can expand it to 288 seats.

The new structure will not only benefit pre-k children, but also, will help students who want to major and work in teaching young children.

Midland College’s president Dr. Steve Thomas says that the new program will help with the teacher shortage in West Texas.

“What makes it unique is the way we designed it is because you have the children on the first floor.” Thomas said. “The students enrolled in this program from day one will be able to do internships in the academy and then go upstairs and take their classes and it’s going to be a great learning experience for these students,”

Dr. Thomas says that Midland College is one of the few community colleges in Texas that offer bachelors degrees.

The idea to create a higher education for pre-k students was a combination of MISD and Midland College back in 2019.

Once the program began, community members wanted Midland College to expand their academy.

Dr. Thomas says that’s how they got the idea to create this structure.

“Now we’re building a new facility that’s going to accommodate 288 students. So all in an attempt to get these kids ready. These youngsterz ready for school.” Thomas said.

The pre-kindergarten academy’s goal is to prepare children ages three to five for the next level of education, but also, to make it affordable for everyone to join.