A Building Designed for Growth!
The school was built with extra classrooms, to give us room to grow. We always knew that we would have to expand, and the building is designed for that. Over time classrooms will be added, completing the circular footprint of the building to resemble a Medicine Wheel. What we didn’t realize is that we’d have to expand so soon. Because several early childhood education centers closed due to Covid, Rapid City’s population is growing at a fast rate, our Native population is growing at even faster rate than the non-Native population, and because of the anticipated population growth due to the Ellsworth Air Force Base expansion as well as other factors, we reached capacity quickly and had a waiting list pages long.
We launched a campaign to add eight classrooms to our twelve original classrooms at a cost of $4.1 million. The campaign was successfully completed in the fall of 2024, giving us the capacity to serve 64 more children and their families. In November 2024, we were able to welcome students to their new classrooms. The campaign was fully funded and we are debt free!
