MANCHESTER, Mo. — Parents in the Parkway School District will learn more about plans for the new Early Childhood Center, but not everyone's on board with where it'll be located.
District officials are hosting an informational meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Southwest Middle School, 701 Wren Ave., to discuss the plans with parents and families and answer their questions.
According to the district website, Parkway has turned away 250-400 families yearly because of a lack of early childhood programs and preschool.
The $32 million facility will have room for more than 300 kids with 13 classrooms, plus inclusive indoor and outdoor learning spaces.
Other services and programs at the new center will include:
- Four therapy/intervention rooms.
- Occupational therapy and physical therapy.
- Gym and storm shelter.
- Motor room.
- Play-based screening.
- Support offices, conference and meeting space.
- Nurse’s health area.
- Office space for district staff currently leasing office space in Creve Coeur.
Right now, the district wants to build it between Wren Hollow Elementary and Southwest Middle School, which is in the southern part of the district.
The location is where the controversy lies. Not all parents are pleased with the potential location for fear of traffic concerns.
Paige Royer is one of those parents that as her concerns, but as a working parent, would love an early childhood center close by.
"I truly believe we could benefit from another early childhood center, I could 100%," she said.
Except with kids at Southwest Middle and Wren Elementary, Royer knows first-hand the congestion on the road near the school.
"The traffic now is horrendous. This would add 400 cars a day to a one-way in, one-way out cul-de-sac," she said.
Royer said she's worried the congested traffic will only get work and could put kids' lives in danger.
"I would never let my kids walk to school in this area. I've seen way too many close calls," she said.
It's not just parents that are concerned about this. Many residents that live near the schools, like Tom Welker, have canvasses and put signs up in the area petitioning against the school construction.
"It's the traffic, it's the environmental, it's the mental health of the children. Children need to be outdoors," he said.
According to Welker, if the center is built there, it would leave the kids with no recreational field nearby.
"If the district needs another ECC. Why can't they consider an alternate location? There are other viable options" he said.
School leaders said they picked this location because of the additional green space around the campus.
Parkway Schools Early Learning Director Elena Amirault said they are there to improve the green space, not take it away.
"We're here to be a good neighbor, right? We don't want conflict; we want to provide factual information," she said.
A traffic impact study is being done in that area, according to Amirault, and the results from the study will help when they're deciding on start and end times for programs.
"We don't want poor traffic for the neighborhood or for kids and families or for any of us," she said.
Also, the area the center would be located has the most students on waiting lists for preschool each year, according to Amirault.
"We have had waiting lists for the past decade, and there's a childcare shortage crisis in our nation and in our state," she said.
Welker doesn't believe in that statement and said district enrollment is declining.
"They say there's a large waitlist, their own independent study, verified that they're on the downward decline of enrollment," he said.
Despite the pushback, Amirault is hopeful they'll find a solution for everyone.
"We're going to be working together to look at how do we make this a win-win for the neighborhood, as well as, for schools and students," she said.
There are other locations the district considered, according to the website. Those include Oak Brook Elementary, South Middle and Sorrento Springs. The district has their reservations on those spots though, ranging from floodplains to highway congestion to restrictive traffic flow.
Construction for the center is set to begin this summer or fall of 2024. The plan is to open the center in the fall of 2026.
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