PHOTOS! See The Becker Early Childhood Education Center!

BECKER (WJON News) - A long list of construction projects has almost reached an end at Becker Public Schools with the completion of the Becker Early Education Center.

Wednesday, the Becker Chamber of Commerce was among the first to tour the almost completed facility.

Superintendent Jeremy Schmidt says it’s one of the last pieces in a laundry list of construction projects in the district.

We've added safe and secure entrances to all of our buildings, we've been able to put in the multipurpose field, and we’ve added lights to our baseball and softball fields. We added some classrooms at the middle school and we moved our transportation off-site. So we were able to put in this early education center keeping a lot of the brick building. We upgraded all the offices in our buildings, and the high school, we improved our CTE and our FACTS areas.

The center was built on the footprint of the school’s old transportation center. The new classrooms and gym space will house the school’s preschool programs and serve as the home base for the Camp Opportunity programs before and after school for students through grade five.

Sue Hiltner is the Becker Early Education Coordinator. She leads a very busy department.

So we currently have about 75 three-year-olds that come to preschool either one or two days a week, and almost 200 four and five-year-olds that come to preschool every week. So we have a large program. It's so helpful for them to be a part of this learning: socially, school rules, academically, physically with their motor skills, and being able to grasp and explore and create.

The Early Childhood Education Center will be ready for students in the fall. School officials believe a community open house will happen in late summer.

Here's a sneak peek of the "almost" completed Becker Early Education Center:

High ceilings & bright hallways:

The new center will have classroom space for the preschool programs as well as before and after school activities through the Camp Opportunity program.

Spacious rooms:

Some of the classroom furniture has arrived, featuring lots of space for everything a preschool needs.

The new gym:

Sue Hiltner (l) shows off the new gym space to the Becker Chamber of Commerce. In addition to supporting preschool and Camp Opportunity programs, the gym will be the new testing space for Becker Robotics.

Wide open spaces:

Superintendent Jeremy Schmidt (2nd from l) explains the construction process to the Chamber of Commerce in one of the large open areas. Sue Hiltner (l) says the area has no specific purpose in mind, and is thankful for the flex space.

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