New 4K Classroom
The immediate priority are the two new 4K classrooms that will serve up to 50 children in partnership with Gibraltar Area School District. The new spaces will allow not only room for classroom activities and programming, but also a dedicated bathroom for this age group, and coat/locker space for these students. Thanks to the generosity of a $1 million dollar lead gift to the campaign, the Phase I construction is complete.
New Teacher Resource Area
A new Teacher Resource Area will provide much needed space for the Northern Door Children’s Center staff to organize and access resources for activity planning, lesson preparation and collaboration, as well as an area to store personal items and take breaks.
New Garage/Storage Space
As the new home for “The Shop,” the garage/storage space will allow the Center to more efficiently accept and manage the numerous in-kind donations that help make our work possible. It will also be the place where we store the critically important building sanitization equipment, and will serve as workspace for our maintenance person.
Expanded and Reconfigured Infant Classrooms
We will expand into two crib areas to increase our capacity and allow for older and younger infants to be separated, thereby better managing their sleep schedules. We are creating an expanded area to allow infants to explore their world. We’re also adding a dedicated infant laundry area to allow for more efficient use of staff time.
Creation of a Family Nursing and Feeding Room
While we have long encouraged breastfeeding of children as the best (when possible, of course), we have never had a dedicated area to foster the ability of mothers to nurse their babies immediately before dropping off their children or after picking them up, as well as during school hours. Given that we are the only child care facility in Northern Door, it’s not uncommon for our parents to have long drives to and from work.
Expanded and Reconfigured Toddler Classrooms
We will expand the toddler classrooms, reconfigure the restrooms so that toddlers have dedicated space for toilet learning, and provide more efficient space for teachers to store classroom materials and prepare their learning plans.
Reconfigured 3K Classroom
Similar to the toddler classrooms, we will reorient the space to create increased storage for classroom materials, offer a better teacher preparation area, and reconfigure the bathrooms so that the 3K students have a dedicated space.
Flexible Classroom Space
The plan calls for the construction of flexible classroom space that will primarily be dedicated for speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy for students who have special needs. The space will be adaptable enough to serve as flexible classroom space for any age group as enrollments fluctuate from year to year.
New Outdoor Classroom
For the first time we’ll have dedicated outdoor learning space for school-age children. Our Camp Cool after-school and summer program will then be able to offer more nature-based teaching and bring our school-age students outdoors more often.
New Indoor/Outdoor Bathrooms
New bathrooms will be constructed that can serve school-age children from inside the building and separate them from the younger children. The bathroom will also be accessible from outdoors, thereby allowing more efficient staff coverage of children who need to use the facility while the rest of the class is playing outside.
New Library
We will construct a new library that will provide books for children, training and resource materials for our teachers, and parenting resources for our families.
New Multi-Purpose Room
This large flexible room be used in part to house 4K during the academic school year but will be used primarily for our Camp Cool programming after the school day ends and during the summers for school-age children. It will also provide a play area during the school day for toddlers through 4K students during times of inclement weather. The Multi-Purpose Room will also have separate bathrooms and an entrance to provide for community learning opportunities for parents after the children have gone home for the day.
New Kitchen
Caring for children requires us to provide healthy meals and snacks throughout the day. Our new kitchen will be significantly larger, both increasing our capacity and allowing for more efficient meal preparation. The larger pantry area will also allow us to purchase food and supplies in larger quantities at lower prices.
New Administrative Space
As we increase the capacity of Northern Door Children’s Center to serve the community, we also need to ensure that adequate space is available for the administrative functions of the Center. The new office space will allow for confidential meetings with families, a private area to counsel children, and a general place to confer with partners, donors, and other people with business at the Center.
For more information about the NDCC Essential Campaign and the Phase 2 building renovations, please contact Karl Wise, Essential Campaign Team Chair, by email at jkwise948@gmail.com.
c/o Door County Community Foundation
222 N 3rd Ave, Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235