PETAL, Miss. (WDAM) - Monday, Oct. 18, the Dynamic Dyslexia Design School in Petal took the first step in its expansion construction. The 3D school is building an additional building on its property that will have six new classrooms.
The expansion is to support the growing student body.
Founder and director Cena Holifield says it’s a much-needed project.
“We are currently serving 147 children. We could possibly serve 200 With this new building. So this new building is very well needed,” she explains.
Monday morning, the 147 students, along with staff and parents put on their hard hats and crossed the street to watch a Mike Dozier construction crew demolish the current building on the property.
The demo is the first step to re-building the new classrooms.
Holifield says staff, students and parents all looked forward to demo day. Everyone was invited to come out and watch.
Holifield explains the construction is even being incorporated into the lessons.
“They will now go back into their classroom where they’ve learned vocabulary words about construction and the names of these big vehicles. They’re going to do an oral language activity where they will verbally express what they saw. And then the ones that are older and are capable of doing the writing are going to do a writing exercise about the excavation,” she explains.
At “Demo Day,” the 3D school announced two grants that are helping fund construction.
“We’re so excited to say that we did receive an Asbury Foundation grant for $250,000 which will go a long way towards our million dollar goal. We also received a $50,000 grant from the Payne Family Foundation which will also help us to reach our goal,” says Holified.
The school is also fundraising with a legacy brick program. People, businesses and groups who donate a certain amount will get their names engraved on a brick for the new building.
“We’re selling our bricks, it’s legacy bricks we would love our former students to come by the school get our go to the website and get an application, we want any business that wants to participate can do a brick or do a donation towards this wonderful project,” says Holifield.
You can learn about the fundraisers and donate here.
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