WNC upgrades early childhood program playground

Western Nevada College’s youngest Wildcats were soaking up the fall sun on Nov. 3 on the Childhood Development Center’s new playground, which suits the preschoolers’ safety and gross motor skill needs better than its predecessor.

Of course, President Kyle Dalpe didn’t hesitate to try out the new slide to make sure it was kid-friendly after installation.

“It’s one of the shining moments here at WNC as we continue to grow in enrollment,” Dalpe said, celebrating its completion as a group of youngsters climbed the new set. “This is a way we can continue to upgrade and improve the campus.”

The set, provided through funding from the E.L. Cord Foundation, was finished in mid-October and replaces a 20-year-old set that no longer conformed to industry standard. The new set is rated for children ages 2 to 5.

CDC Director Annalisa Acosta said the new structure will help little ones with their gross motor development and has musical features for their fine motor skills. It was set up to encourage social-emotional learning such as sharing, learning and becoming excited if a peer is doing an activity successfully, she said.

“You can see our teachers are engaged with them, showing them how to do something, getting their heart rate up,” she said.

The set offers different types of stairs, and is rubber to limit the effect of summer heat. The ground’s resilient surfacing replaces wood chips with rubber for stumbling, also helping to prevent injuries.

The teal blue and purple is in contrast from the former red and green and meant to be more neutral to help the students’ visual needs.

The center, which has been recognized as Best Child/Day Care Provider in the Nevada Appeal’s Best of Carson City for the past six years, continually has remained at capacity at 100 students just as long, Acosta said. The CDC is the only Carson City center in rural Nevada accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Less than 10 percent of all child care centers, preschools and kindergartens in the nation achieve this recognition.

“It’s a wonderful problem for us to have,” she said. “We hold open enrollments where we have families waiting at 2 or 3 in the morning.”

One young student, who noticed attention on the playground was overshadowing the facility’s sandbox, wanted to make sure all of the CDC’s outdoor resources were getting noticed and went back to playing in the sand.

Acosta said the center offers 25 to 30 on staff, many of whom are student workers. Every class has seven head teachers who are classified, full-time employees certified through the state.

Dalpe said the new construction will help to alleviate a burden some families and students face with child care and transportation, both of which often serve as impediments to their education at the college.

“We always have a list (for the CDC),” he said. “It’s the premiere facility.”

The best public opinion, though, came from direct user feedback.

“I had one little guy who doesn’t do too well with change, and he told me that he was going to not play on the new playground, ‘Why are you taking my old one away?’ ” Acosta said. “He was very upset, and the first day we came out, he ran out, hands up, and said, ‘This is the best day ever!’

“And I said, ‘This is it for me, I’ve done the best that I can do that day,’ ” she said. “And it feels like every time we come out, there’s something new for them to discover.”