From Out of The Earthwork

What was it like to watch the Leipold Johnson Early Childhood Center go up during a year no one will ever forget?

—By Brendan J. O’Brien

Corey Brandt, Director of Facilities, knocks on my door and delivers the disc with a calculated level of exaggerated pomp. He’s being theatrical because I’ve been pestering him lately about the pictures.

Thanks to the miracle of technology, this small piece of plastic holds hundreds of images snapped by Bukacek Construction over the last ten months. Much like their jobsite, the contents are organized, fanatically so, with each component given its own individual folder. Carpentry. Masonry. Mechanical. Plumbing. Everything is here. And while there are eleven folders in all, my eye is instantly drawn to one.

Earthwork.

Any lover of words will tell you there’s this little burst of literary glee that takes place when coming across a word you’ve never noticed before. Nerdy? Absolutely. But hey, we are who we are.

Earthwork. It’s not hard to pronounce. Nor is it hard to guess what it means even without the assistance of Google. Before opening the folder I know I will see the construction process in its infancy. Before beams are welded and windows put in place, things are measured. Holes are dug. Soil is pushed. A foundation is started.

Knowing how far the Leipold Johnson Early Childhood Center has come in just ten months – as I write this the building is nearly complete – it feels like the right time to reflect on watching its creation up close. Maybe it’s my overly sentimental and symbolic writer’s brain at work, but it’s impossible not to reflect on where the world was when construction began on June 23, 2020.

Think back to America last June. A scary, rioutous time. A new and relentless pandemic. Politicians spitting vile, absurd rhetoric in the way only politicians can spit such things. America was experiencing upheaval. Our nation was in need of some long overdue earthwork.

This isn’t to suggest what has happened between now and then has poured a new foundation in this country. America, as beautiful and brilliant as it is, can also be notoriously poor at learning from its past mistakes. However, during times of turmoil we also know there will be people and places to count on, institutions committed to lifting people up. To making people think. To challenging the status quo.

Prairie is such a place.

Over the past year this school has done good, impactful work. During one of the scarier times we’ll ever face, this community rallied together, crafted a plan, and opened its doors for our students and families. Those doors have stayed open since August.

During that time, a beautiful new building grew up out of the ground. Out of the earthwork. A building where Prairie’s youngest learners will come to understand the importance of playing nice with one another. The importance of devising peaceful solutions. The importance of being a kind, caring friend.