UNLV expands preschool capacity with new early childhood education campus

Back-to-school season kicked off with an opening ceremony for the Marlow Early Childhood Education Campus on Wednesday at UNLV. 

The Marlow campus is an expansion of the Lynn Bennett Early Childhood Education Center and the UNLV/CSUN Preschool. The new campus will serve up to 80 additional preschool students and include space for early childhood and special education research.

“It is quite emotional,” UNLV/CSUN Preschool Assistant Director Shin Silver said while tearing up. “I started here before we came into our current campus, so it’s my 25th year here. So to see it expand, it is amazing to see.”

She continued,“Us being able to support more families in the community – we’ve had 300 to 600 families on our waitlist, so to support more of those families, and more families that have special education needs, it’s quite phenomenal.” 

The opening of the new campus took 10 years from planning to final construction. Anonymous donors contributed $12.5 million dollars to the project, which doubled the campus’ capacity by adding 12,000 square feet. The campus will now serve more than 300 children from ages 6 weeks to 5 years.

The new space supports four classrooms that can accommodate 20 preschoolers each. Classrooms have an observation room where students and faculty can observe preschoolers in their learning environment and conduct research. 

“One of the ways that I think about how we judge a community is how well that community treats its children,” UNLV Interim President Chris Heavey said during the ceremony. “How well it creates an environment for those children to grow up and to thrive, to become incredible adults, and contributing members of our society. And what is happening here today will have that exact impact on hundreds and eventually thousands of children.” 

After opening remarks and the ribbon cutting, the Marlow campus opened its doors for a reception and tours of the new campus. Inside, faculty, staff and parents had the opportunity to see where future students will learn. 

One parent, Joshue Gonzalez, arrived with his son who has attended the UNLV/CSUN Preschool since he was six weeks old. While Gonzalez spoke with the Nevada Current, his son ran around the classroom enjoying the new features.

“It’s really cool to see,” Gonzalez said. “For example, the sinks that he’s messing with right now, like in the other [classrooms], they’re normal sinks with, like, a little stepstool, but these are made exactly for children, with the soap dispenser and the paper towels right at his level.” 

Trump administration threatens to gut Head Start rules

The expansion of preschools and early childhood education is needed in a state that currently ranks 50th in the nation in availability, expense, and state investment in childcare according to a The Lincy Institute and Brookings Mountain West fact sheet.

But, as UNLV celebrated the opening of the new campus, nationally some uncertainty surrounding preschools looms following proposed changes by the Trump administration. 

The White House plans to strip requirements of the Head Start program, a U.S. federal program established to provide free early education, health services, nutrition, and familial support to low-income families. The requirements targeted include math and literacy curriculums, class sizes, medical screenings, home visits, and children brushing their teeth after meals.

While the Lynn Bennett Early Childhood Education Center does not participate in Head Start, this deregulation on early childhood development could have implications for early childhood education as a whole.