USD 475 makes huge progress on new $30 million Early Childhood Care Center

GEARY COUNTY (KSNT) – The Geary County Unified School District is making big waves in the construction process for its new multi-million dollar state-of-the-art Early Childhood Care Center.

USD 475 broke ground on the new center a year ago. 27 News got a inside look of the facility this week to see the progress being made on the new structure.

27 News spoke with Geary County Schools Superintendent Reginald Eggleston about the slated opening date for the facility.

“We’re looking at opening the school in the fall,” Eggleston said. “So hopefully everything continues as planned and we will have 32 classrooms available to receive students in August of 2026.”

The Early Childhood Care Center will feature 32 classrooms to consolidate all early childhood education across Junction City into one building. The $30,150,00 construction project was initially approved back in September 2024.

Eggleston explained to 27 News how the project is being funded.

“The facility is being built on our old high school property,” Eggleston said. “That’s really a big deal because we didn’t have to go out and purchase new property, which actually contributed to the savings that we’ve been experiencing all throughout this construction project. We were able to use some of our federal funds to assist us with this, which keeps us from having to go to the public to raise taxes or to even have a conversation about that. And any time we can do that, that that is tremendous. We are under budget, and we are on time. And that means a lot to taxpayers as well as for members of my Board of Education.”

A ceremony will be held to mark the opening of the Early Childhood Care Center in 2026.

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