By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Following a luncheon at Lincoln Elementary School Thursday, members of the USD 428 Board of Education took a tour of the new Little Panthers Preschool and District Education Center at 1809 24th Street. Much progress has been made on the building ahead of an open house scheduled for Aug. 1. Superintendent Khris Thexton has been pleased with the progress and outcome.
"It's been a long process and a short process all at the same time," he said. "We've been able to get a lot done in a short amount of time. With the partners we worked with, through the architects and also our construction manager, this has been a great project not only for our district but our community as well."
The district purchased the former CUNA Mutual property in September 2022 at a reduced cost of $1.3 million. By December, the Panther wrestling team was able to move mats into what is now The Lair. Last August, the board approved a maximum price tag of $4.79 million to turn the building into the new preschool and district education center. Up to $2.2 million of the cost may be paid for by federal funds.
"For the preschool side, the majority of that cost came from ESSER funding, which was due to the COVID pandemic, so we were able to use money from that," Thexton said. "Also combined with our capital outlay, we were able to get this building to where it needs to be. It was funding we had on hand, and we were able to put it into this building to get it to where it's at now."
Thexton said the building should be move-in ready by late May or early June. With 15 classrooms, Little Panthers Preschool can accommodate up to 288 children ages three and four. Thursday's tour showed off the color and animal schemes, many of which match the current elementary school mascots. The building also features new offices, a break room, a kitchen area, and a larger meeting room for the board of education.
"We had heard from some of the groups that have been in to look at it, this rivals large districts on our early childhood side of this," said Thexton. "They were very impressed and thought Great Bend was going in the right direction on early childhood."
The open house scheduled for Aug. 1 from 4-6 p.m. will feature tours, a ribbon cutting, and light refreshments.
