History of Building Bridges
Building Bridges is a child development program that serves children 6 weeks through 5 years of age. The program began in the fall of 1994 as an Infant/Toddler program at Bentonville High School. The project was part of the Goals 2000 Initiative that the school district implemented. The project served two purposes. The first was to allow teen parents an option that would help them stay in school thus reducing the drop-out rate among teens. The second was to serve as a lab setting for the students in the Family and Consumer Sciences Department. Students are able to use the facility as an observation tool as well as, work in the center as volunteers for Service Credit. The service credit program offers the student 1 credit hour as an elective credit on their high school transcript. The project was very successful and eventually moved into a larger Child Development Center in the new Bentonville High School facility but continued providing services in the Infant/Toddler Center at Lincoln Junior High School. BHS at Building Bridges had a United Way grant for many years that offset the cost of childcare for teen parents.
In 1996, due to a need for childcare for teen parent’s three year old children, Pre-K centers were opened at each of the 5 elementary schools. The centers also served district staff children and children from the community. In 1998, in response to district growth and the need to take back the space in the elementary schools, the Pre-K classrooms were moved to two facilities. Jefferson Creek Pre-K had three, 3-5 year old classrooms and the Tech Pre-K Center had three, 3-5 year old classrooms. At this time, Building Bridges served approximately 176 children in the 4 centers.
In July 2006, additional space was made available and Building Bridges was once again moved to a new location. One site was located next to Washington Junior High and served 54 birth-age 3 children and the children from the LJHS site moved to this facility. The other site located on 2nd street replaced the facility at tech. In the fall of 2006, approximately 200 children were served through Building Bridges.
Just prior to acquiring the additional space, a grant was received from the Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club Foundation to build a new Pre-K Center which would provide services for 240 low income pre-k children and it opened in January 2008. This center was funded through the Arkansas Better Chance grant. At this time, Building Bridges served 440 children. Eventually, the district made the Pre-K Center a stand-alone facility much like an elementary school and hired a principal to supervise it. Building Bridges Infant Toddler Center remains at Bentonville High School located at 1901 NE J Street. Building Bridges Pre-K is located at 1701 NE Wildcat Way and houses four pre-k classrooms. Funding for pre-k is provided by a Federal Pre-K grant as well as an Excellerate grant and provides early care and educations to 80 children who meet income eligibility guidelines.
Building Bridges has seen many changes over the years but one thing has not changed which is our desire to provide high quality early childhood experiences to the families and children we serve.