PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Northern Maine Community College has begun renovations on Penobscot Hall to convert it into a new child care center.
The first five weeks of the $5.2 million project are dedicated to interior demolition and safely removing heating systems, electrical conduit, and outdated sprinkler systems.
The center is needed because age demographics for NMCC students have changed with 126 students being 35 and over. As older students attend classes on campus many of them have children.
The NMCC child care center is a response to changing student demographics combined with existing family housing on the campus to make it easier for students with children to get their higher education, according to NMCC President Tim Crowley.
“People in terms of their occupations are much more mobile,” Crowley said. “For a long time people would stay in their job for 10 or 12 years and now they don’t.”
The campus-based child care center will serve 47 children from birth to 8 years old, and allow older students to get the skills needed for jobs with changing, or emerging technologies.
“When we met with our students here and talked about it a year and half ago, we know that 47 slots will help our students but it is not going to take care of all the need that’s here,” Crowley said.
Full-time NMCC students and staff will have priority for enrollment for their children, followed by the University of Maine at Presque Isle full-time students and staff with remaining child care center capacity going to the community.
The sources of funding the project are $1 million approved by the Maine Legislature from a bill introduced by Republican Sen. Trey Stewart. The Rodney and Mary Smith Family Foundation committed $2.8 million and the Northern Maine Community College Foundation contributed $500,000, along with two anonymous donations.
NMCC also contributed another $500,000 from its college funds.
Both of the $500,000 contributions from the NMCC Foundation and the community college were approved by the board of trustees on Sept. 27, according to Crowley.
A bid for a licensed local provider to operate the center will begin in the coming months, but the system hasn’t been designed until a provider is hired.
The child care center will serve as a lab school for the college’s early childhood education majors to obtain 450 hours required by Maine’s Child Development Associate credential.
The center will also allow the number of trained child care professionals to address the child care shortage in the area.
A faculty member has been added to NMCC’s early childhood education program and it has expanded to achieve national accreditation. This will allow students to get more field experience locally without having to travel outside of Presque Isle to get their required hours.
NMCC used to work with Jordyn Rossignol’s childcare center in Caribou before it closed down at the end of August this year.
The newly renovated Penobscot Hall will be renamed during the spring of next year, Crowley said.
The photo caption was updated to correct the name of Peter Denis.
