Square One cut the ribbon in its new William Street facility, helped by “Square One kids” Zuri Coppedge, Harlynne Malone-Perry and Ezra Montanez.
Reminder Publishing photo by Sarah Heinonen
SPRINGFIELD — The ribbon was cut on Square One’s new $15.1 million early childhood education facility at 186 William St. in Springfield.
“We’re officially back to Square One,” Kristine Allard, Square One’s vice president of development and communication, announced, referring to the name of the building campaign.
President and CEO Dawn DiStefano joked of building the early child education facility, “When your bosses are three feet tall, you listen.”
In 1883, Harriett Merriam, daughter of Merriam-Webster co-founder Charles Webster, founded the Springfield Day Nursery to provide care for the children of working-class families. It became Square One in 1990. The Williams Street site was the nonprofit organization’s home until a tornado carved a path of destruction through Springfield 2011.
“The tornado may have torn through the heart of our home, but it did not harm our heart,” DiStefano said.
“Welcome home,” Amy Kershaw, state early childhood education commissioner, said to the Square One team. “You are amazing partners for how we drive change.” She went on to say, “The facilities in which children live, learn and play,” reflect the “values” of the community. The three-story, 24,827-square-foot building features classrooms that lead directly to the 5,118-square-foot outdoor space, which offers exploratory play.
The classrooms were designed with trauma-informed principles, including daylight and views of nature, soothing and warm color palettes and rooms sized to promote feelings of safety. The rooms are also designed to encourage educational curiosity, with lighting of different sizes and shapes, child-height windows looking into the hallways and different zones within the classroom for different activities. The facility will educate 80 children each day, with about 85 teachers and staff.
“We exceed regulatory numbers in our classrooms,” DiStefano said. “We are saturating our children with the adult skills and talent they need to be the best that they can be.”
DiStefano spoke about Square One’s emphasis on educating the whole child. Every one of the 600 children in Square One learning environments “meets the definition of a vulnerable child. They’re coming from a community that, at times, is struggling,” she said.
“Most of our classrooms have clinical experts” but “the therapeutic intervention is really the relationships that the adults and the kids are creating with each other.”
She continued, “For most of us, we’re all vulnerable at times. All of us, but we need to be able to have the words and the body language to tell people around us what’s going on. And then we can learn.” She said the message it sends to the children is, “You’re safe here. You’re okay here. Let’s learn. Let’s play. Let’s make friends.”
Funding
DiStefano said the project would not have been possible without donations by individuals, calling out some particularly generous donors.
The Red Sox Foundation gave $400,000 to create the fenced outdoor play space, she said, and the Davis Family Foundation and the state Department of Early Education both donated $500,000. She noted the immediate willingness of Mayor Domenic Sarno to work with Square One, and the city’s donation of $1 million. The state delegation, including state Sens. Jake Oliviera and Adam Gomez and state Reps. Carlos Gonzalez, Orlando Ramos and Brian Ashe, secured a $2 million earmark in the state budget.
DiStefano particularly praised the Balise family, owners of Balise Auto Group, who donated $1 million to the project. When Jeb Balise asked DiStefano if she was interested in expanding to a vacant building adjacent to the Williams Street property, she said the was no money for that. Balise then bought the property for $2.2 million and gifted it to Square One. DiStefano said the building will be used for offices, a parent resource center and other administrative needs.
Balise said the Square One team displays “leadership in action,” and added, “It’s amazing what they do everyday.”
Referring to the collaborative nature of funding for the project, Sarno said, “This is what happens when people work together.” He thanked the Square One team for caring about Springfield’s children. “A requirement for children, no matter what creed or background, is education, education, education,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Richard Neal quipped that after the previous six weeks of shutdown in Washington, “the federal government is back to Square One.” He pointed out the use of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding that went toward the project and said the legislation was one reason the country rebounded after the coronavirus pandemic damaged the economy.
Neal said one of the lessons of the pandemic is that women were forced to leave the workforce to care for children when schools shut down and have not returned in the same numbers as their male counterparts. Square One is “part of the answer,” he said, allowing early childhood education so parents can work during the day and providing jobs in education, which women have been historically overrepresented in. Evidence of this can be found in the fact that 98% of Square One’s roughly 200-person workforce is working mothers, according to DiStefano. Those workers themselves must have childcare or early childhood educational services.
Dennis Duquette, of the MassMutual Foundation, which also donated to the Square One project, built off the comments by Neal, saying there is a “ripple effect” when children have access to early education. They receive an education, and their parents can go to work, contributing to a strong economy, which supports the community as a whole.
“Every child is a flower,” said Gonzalez. “It is our responsibility to provide the highest quality of education” to nurture “the garden.”
Oliveira touted the value of Commonwealth Cares for Children grants, saying that the market pays low wages to childcare and education workers.” The grants help “ensure educators are decently paid. We need early childhood educators in the classroom now.” Oliviera finished his remarks by quoting Frederick Douglas, “It is easier to build strong children than repair broken men.”
For Gomez, who was a “Square One kid,” himself, the moment came full circle. “Being 42 now, being a part of this program when I was a kid, up on King Street, and now as a legislator. What they’re been able to continuously provide, it’s an amazing feat,” he said. “I know that this place is going to give back for generations to come. It’s going to withstand time longer than we’ll be here.”
Three current “Square One kids” — Zuri Coppedge, Harlynne Malone-Perry and Ezra Montanez — helped cut the ribbon. Montanez sang the children’s song, “The World is a Rainbow,” receiving a collective “aww” from the crowd of about 200 people.
