Midland College Pre-K Academy expanding with new building

MIDLAND, Texas (KOSA) - For the past eight years Midland College has been planning a new College of Education and have recently received the funding for the new College of Education building which will house their expanding Pre-k Academy.

“On the bottom floor you will have Pre-k 3 classrooms and Pre-k 4 classrooms where we will have certified staff and teaching assistants to serve the Midland County families so that they can have a great foundation for their kiddos as they get ready for kindergarten,” said Executive Director of Early Childhood Education Leslie Goodrum.

Currently there are a total of 68 kids in the Pre-k Academy, with the new building they will be expanding to 296 children. The growing number of children means they need more teachers.

“We are hiring twelve additional certified teaching staff because we currently have four and we are looking to hire about 15 to 20 additional teaching assistants,” said Goodrum.

The academy is partnering with Midland ISD as a 1882 charter school to offer more seats to keep up with the Pre-k need in Midland.

Those who don’t qualify for head start or Pre-k through the academy can even pay tuition for the children to attend.

“We need to build the foundations so that once they hit kindergarten they’re ready to run and they can progress and become successful students,” said Goodrum.

The building is 60,000 square feet, 30,000 on top and 30,000 on the bottom, located right next to the Chaparral Center and it will be opening in August,

“A great facility, it’s gonna be state of the art, it’s gonna have everything imaginable that a teacher would need to set up a great environment for her preschool students,” said Goodrum.

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