Students Lay 'Memory Rocks' For Jefferson Early Childhood Center

WHEATON, IL -- Community Unit School District 200 students did their part to help lay the groundwork for the new Jefferson Early Childhood Center. The students decorated "memory rocks" and laid them onto what would become the foundation of the district's most recent construction project.

The students donned bright yellow hard hats to take part in the June 4 project, which was broadcast live on the CUSD 200 Facebook page. Students used special colorful markers to adorn the smooth "memory rocks" with drawings and phrases to commemorate the construction and add their intentions to the upcoming project.

The rocks included such uplifting phrases as "Jefferson: Our Youngest Learners with the Biggest Hearts" and "All 4 Kids, Kids 4 All."

The kids and their teachers gathered early on the last day of school to take the colorful rocks to build site. Led by Jefferson Early Childhood Center Dr. Stephanie Farrelly, the students counted backwards from 10 and tossed their "memory rocks" into the building's foundation while a front loader poured in the remainder of the rocks nearby.

Crews first broke ground for the new Jefferson Early Childhood Center in mid-January. The project, which was approved by a majority of voters in a referendum question in August 2018, will replace the current Jefferson Early Childhood Center, which was built in 1958 and is no longer ADA-compliant.

District 200 hopes to have construction wrapped up on the new Jefferson Early Childhood Center before the 2020-21 school year.