Transforming Office Space to Learning Space

The AIU’s New Early Childhood Classroom

It is late June 2024. Allegheny Intermediate Unit employees and their families are preparing to open the Waterfront Early Childhood Classroom at the agency’s Central Office in Homestead.

A crowd of people is poised, their hands ready to clap.

A playground slide shines in the mid-afternoon sun. A ribbon is tied and ready to be cut.

Presiding as MC at the ribbon cutting ceremony, AIU Executive Director Robert Scherrer, Ed.D., pauses, waving a few of the children gathered in front of the podium toward him — and asks, “Can you come up here with us?”

How do you create a classroom?

As the children come forward, Dr. Scherrer and other key figures in the AIU’s Early Childhood Education Program await the count-off, scissors at the ready.

“One, two, three!” Four pairs of scissors cut through the ribbon, setting off a round of cheers and applause. More importantly, it signaled a new beginning in education at the AIU and a milestone in cooperation among its divisions and programs.

A year before the ribbon-cutting ceremony, critical decisions were made that birthed the Waterfront Early Childhood Classroom. The AIU’s Marketing & Strategic Communication Department had recently outgrown its area on the first floor. That space sat vacant near a room containing outdated printing equipment. It was time to decide —invest in new printing equipment or put more money, time, and effort into the AIU’s core mission: education.

“We realized there was this need to train new educators as they come into our early childhood programs, and to continue to train those who are already in the program,” Dr. Scherrer said. “It made sense for us to rethink that space, turn it into a classroom, and satisfy the need we were seeing.”

Establishing an early childhood classroom at the AIU Central Office was exactly what Shannon McGee, program director of Early Childhood Education Services, wanted to hear. “Learning starts at birth,” said McGee. “It starts with the pipeline that we focus on, from Early Head Start to Head Start to Pre-K Counts all the way to kindergarten.”

However, turning a cubicle-filled office and an aging print shop into one classroom would not be cheap. Thankfully, the classroom was set on a path to reality through funding from the federal government and its Head Start programming, along with anonymous donations.

Personal and Professional Needs

Creating a classroom could not have come at a better time for McGee and her staff. While the COVID-19 pandemic started to recede from view, its impact remained obvious in two areas: child behavior and staff recruitment.

“There has been a high turnover rate in the education field, period,” said McGee. “It’s been very difficult to recruit teachers and teacher’s assistants, and we feel it’s important to grow our own —to have a grassroots movement with staffing.”

The Waterfront Early Childhood Classroom is meant to serve as an incubator for education careers and allow job candidates to see our teachers in action, giving Human Resources a leg up on attracting top teaching talent.

“We want to support parents who are involved in our programming and create a career path,” said McGee. That includes identifying parents who have a passion for education and supporting them by helping them earn credentials such as a Child Development Associate certificate.

And the Children Shall Lead

Screams of delight echo off the wall beside the playground attached to the Waterfront Early Childhood Classroom. Inside the classroom, a girl smiles wide as she plays on a light-up table, her face cast in alternating hues of blue, red, and green.

Dr. Scherrer can’t help but smile, too.

“I think this classroom is a reminder for us that the work we do across the organization is focused on people,” he said. “Here it is: a program that is focused on our youngest learners. Then we have other programs to support K-12 students, and we have programs for adult learners. It shows that we want to continue to be at the forefront of growing and asking, ‘how do we get better at the work that we do?’”

McGee is especially proud of the contributions made by her program, which serves more than 1,200 children in Allegheny County through dozens of classrooms.

“That’s a huge impact that we can make, and if we can start here by developing best practices for the children and families who come to our classrooms and get that out in the communities and continue to grow…that would be ideal.”

McGee looked around the room, taking in a space now filled with playful children, beaming parents, and proud AIU employees. Ever the educator, her favorite classroom feature is one that prepares students for real-life lessons. “I really like to play in the dramatic play area,” she said, referencing a toy kitchen setup that allows children to explore different social roles. “Just the imagination that takes off [there] is just, it’s fun to watch and to be a part of. I love it.”

Whether it’s the imagination of a child, or the spark felt by a teacher, it’s clear the AIU’s new Waterfront Early Childhood Classroom has set the stage for a reinvigoration of early childhood education.

Why It's Important

Assisting interested parents earn education credentials is a notion that sits well with parents such as Tiffany Gamret, chairperson of the local Head Start/Early Head Start Policy Council. “When this was presented to us in policy council, we loved it,” said Gamret. “I can’t wait to watch it bloom.”

Gamret has six children and has put three of them into Head Start programming. A proud advocate of her children and the program, she’s “excited to watch… how these children flourish,” she said. She’s also looking forward to seeing how the teachers will help develop incoming educators.

Head Start serves children from age 3 to 5. Today, most children in that age range were born during the COVID-19 pandemic. For McGee, the effects of a pandemic upbringing are readily apparent, noting that very little socialization happened in those early years. “You’re seeing children who aren’t as sociable or emotionally developed as they typically would be,” McGee said.

Social-emotional learning is a key part of the early childhood education curriculum, but there is an added emphasis on it in the wake of the pandemic. “What happens during the toddler stage has a huge impact when children come into a classroom. And you’re starting to see more cognitive developmental delays, speech delays...because the services weren’t happening,” McGee said.

“It’s important to have a classroom that will support children with a nurturing learning environment,” she added. The classroom will allow Preschool Early Intervention specialists to address learning delays and other issues up close, giving the AIU’s Special Education Division a new, in-house avenue to continue its critical work.

-- By Dan Rinkus