Nonprofit Riverview Children’s Center plans $2.5 million expansion project
An early learning and child care center in Verona is preparing to undergo a multimillion-dollar makeover, seeking to expand its offerings amid limited space and a long waiting list.
Expanding and renovating the Riverview Children’s Center has become a priority for the decades-old institution, which has added accommodations in the past but has found itself unable to host larger functions. And although it’s one of many early learning centers in the Pittsburgh region, it has a waiting list of more than 100 children.
“We’re bursting at the seams,” said Betty Lisowski, executive director.
Expected to begin in a couple of months, the project will expand the 8,500-square-foot center by more than half its size, to about 13,500 square feet. A new classroom and a multipurpose room are planned as well as space for a kitchen.
The project is estimated to cost about $2.5 million, which the independent nonprofit will pay for through a fundraising effort it launched in 2014. Most of the money has come from grants from the state, Allegheny County and foundations, but individual donations have also trickled in.
“This is by far the most ambitious undertaking we’ve ever had,” Ms. Lisowski said, noting that it’s the most money the nonprofit has ever sought to raise for a capital project. She praised some local legislators, saying their advocacy for affordable early childhood education has helped draw funds from the state.
Although it had yet to reach its fundraising goal as of early this month — by about $300,000 — construction is expected to begin in March, she said. It is to finish by the end of the summer, with interior renovations taking place afterward.
Offering prekindergarten education and before- and after-school programs for students in grades K5, the Riverview Children’s Center was built in 1979, years after its founder started a program nearby for preschool-age children.
About 130 children are enrolled at the center, which also uses a classroom at Verner Elementary School, a 10-minute walk away, for prekindergarten children. More than half of the children are from Oakmont and Verona, with others coming from elsewhere, including Tarentum, New Kensington and other places in Armstrong and Butler counties.
In addition to a curriculum emphasizing hands-on learning, the center offers year-round child care and swimming lessons. “If children grow up on the riverfront, they should know how to swim,” Ms.
Lisowski said, citing the center’s founder, the late Elizabeth Rockwell Raphael.
The last time the center underwent a major expansion was in 2000, when it added two classrooms that separated school-age children and preschoolers. The project took six months and cost about $670,000.
Expanding the center by about 2,000 square feet, that project “made all the difference in the world,” Ms. Lisowski said. In 1997, a smaller renovation took place that involved covering over the indoor swimming pool to make room for infants and toddlers; another in-ground pool was built outdoors.
The upcoming project is designed not only to add more space but also to make the building more functional.
“The physical environment needs to be modified,” Ms. Lisowksi said. She added that the renovation will also make the building more fit to meet health and safety standards set by the state and its accrediting agency, the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Along with a new classroom, the project will involve building a multipurpose room where gross motor skills will be taught — crawling, jumping, running — during winter months. The space will also accommodate family activities and training sessions.
A new kitchen area is also planned, for breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks. The center partners with the Riverview School District for meals, which are served family style.
Amid all the improvements over the years, the center has upheld one of its core principles: inclusiveness. In addition to accepting children with different cognitive abilities, it offers a free pre-K program and works with a state program offering child care subsidies for low-income families.
“It’s a place for all children,” Ms. Lisowski said, “regardless of their family’s income or ability to pay.”