The public got its first look at a completed Willie G. and Gloria Brown Education Center Wednesday.
District 87 purchased the building on Oakland Avenue from State Farm in 2024. It then became the home of the Bloomington Career Academy [BCA] and the Sarah Raymond School of Early Learning. District 87 renamed the building after two Bloomington High School graduates. Willie Brown retired from State Farm in 2009, having worked in the building now named after him.
The district hosted an open house this week.
Sarah Raymond School
Superintendent David Mouser said before the purchase of the building that District 87’s waiting list for pre-K services had up to 300 students.
“Now we have room, and we got lots of it,” said Mouser.
Mouser said it was “hard” to turn away students for lack of space. There has not been ample space elsewhere in Bloomington-Normal, either. The abrupt closure of the Milestones Early Learning Center and Preschool this summer was the latest in a string of closures of places that could provide an alternative to families that do not find room at District 87 facilities.
“We had nine classrooms at the old Sarah Raymond building. Today, we have 19 classrooms that are currently being utilized, and more growth to expand into,” said Mouser. “And so we're going to be able to take on our entire community.”
Mohan Palaka’s son, Vihan, joined the Sarah Raymond School this year. It is the Palaka family’s first experience with sending a child to preschool.
“When we came to the screening, first of all, we were amazed by looking at the facility. The facility was very big,” said Palaka.
He was impressed by how much space there is for Vihan to play, and the wide array of books for students to use from the library.
Imran Khan attended the open house to see where his son Yusuf attends preschool. Yusuf’s older sister was at Sarah Raymond when it was still housed in the previous building.
“The building was very old, the space was less over there,” said Khan. “But here is a very spacious and very good space.”
Career Academy
Sharing a building with Sarah Raymond is Bloomington Career Academy, which accepts students from more than a dozen public and private school districts in McLean and nearby counties. Students learn career-specific skills from professionals and see opportunities for hands-on work, certifications and dual credit.
Several BCA students served as student ambassadors, leading visitors through what can be a complicated building for newcomers to navigate. They also shared what they have been able to do through their studies at the BCA, like Lexi Tracy, a senior from Tri-Valley High School in Downs. Tracy is studying CNA [Certified Nursing Assistant] Leadership.
“I'm on the mother-baby unit, and it's just really fun getting to do vitals on the moms, and then just getting the hospital atmosphere and the clinical hours in,” said Tracy.
She has already had real-world experience in hospitals, including being there for live births and cesarean sections and taking care of mothers before and after.
“Getting this experience at such a young age,” said Tracy, “it just makes me feel like an actual adult and not like just a high school student.”
Preston Ifft saw the BCA as an opportunity to fast-track a career as an automotive mechanic. Ifft is a junior from Bloomington High School.
“It almost gives you a head start,” said Ifft. “What they would be learning in their first couple months of college, you've already learned here in your years that you've been here, so you can just breeze past those programs and then get into the higher level stuff way faster than everybody else.”
Ifft grew up on a farm and loved working on the diesel-powered vehicles his family uses. His school year started with taking apart and piecing back together two engines. Now his class of about 20 people is learning about vehicle inspections for if they were to do a maintenance check-up on a vehicle.
Bloomington Central Catholic junior Luke Henehan is studying construction trades. First, he and his class of about 12 people learned how to calculate cost estimates for materials and labor to complete a job. More recently he said he has been learning about building codes and basic foundations of buildings.
In construction trades, Henehan said students will more often graduate prepared to get into their careers right away.
Both Ifft and Henehan agreed the access to equipment is much different from a typical shop class in a high school.
“We have some state-of-the-art equipment here. We have any tool we could have ever, ever needed for automotive. We've gotten all the opportunities,” said Ifft.
Donations help students avoid the budget limits that might lead to them finding a tool in the workforce they are not already familiar with.
“Most specialty tools out there, high school is not going to have them because the tools are just expensive. But we've had tools donated that we're allowed to then learn on and use,” said Henehan.
Which Henehan said makes a big difference because it does not cost as much to explore the profession to decide whether or not you like it.
“You don't have to go out there and buy it yourself to learn, and you can just do it right there, where it's all paid for, and you just have to just use all your time and energy to just use that tool and learn how to do it well,” said Henehan.
