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CREC's Museum Academy Looks Forward to its Forever Home
(Bloomfield, CT) Building a new CREC magnet school is symbolic. It shows that CREC is committed to educating every child no matter what town they live in or their socioeconomic background, and that’s why September 23’s groundbreaking ceremony for the CREC Museum Academy is so important.
“We love all of Connecticut’s children,” said CREC Executive Director Bruce E. Douglas. “We are sending a message that we won’t tolerate racial and wealth disparity.”
The new, 75,000-square-foot CREC Museum Academy facility will be located at 11 Turkey Hill Road in Bloomfield, the former J.P. Vincent Elementary School property. It is expected to open in August 2017, and school officials, smiling students, parents, Bloomfield town leaders, and a student from J.P. Vincent Elementary School’s first-ever class came together September 23 to celebrate the start of the construction project. They posed for pictures with shovels and hard hats and expressed their joy.
“I’ve never been so excited to see trucks and dirt,” said CREC Museum Academy Principal Shandra Brown.
The groundbreaking ceremony marked a turning point for the school community, providing them with tangible proof that work has begun on their forever home. The CREC Museum Academy has operated as an interdistrict magnet school since 2008. Since opening, and while waiting for construction of a permanent facility, the school has moved buildings three times. The school community has remained supportive throughout these moves, showing the resilience and commitment of the school’s students, parents, and staff. The CREC Museum Academy is currently located at two temporary sites. Preschool and kindergarten students attend school at 206 West Newberry Road in Bloomfield, and students in grades one through five attend classes at 10 Univac Lane @ 10 Targeting Centre in Windsor.
The new building will allow all grades to be educated in the same building, and in an effort to honor J.P. Vincent Elementary School, the school library will be named after the namesake of the former school—Joseph P. Vincent, who served on the Bloomfield school board in the 1940s.
The new CREC Museum Academy facility will also feature a gallery space wide enough to accommodate displays of student work, which will enhance the school’s museum theme. At the CREC Museum Academy, students develop their own curiosity about the world through visual arts, living museums, performances, and exhibition. The school’s curriculum encourages students to become critical thinkers and active learners.
The building’s design will be innovative, incorporate symbolism, and align with the school’s theme, explained CREC Superintendent Dina Crowl. “Together, they send a powerful message,” she said.
