AWC child lab dedicated to Kathryn Watson

It’s not every day that someone has an entire building dedicated in their honor, but then Kathryn Watson is not just an average someone.

Earlier this month, Arizona Western College honored its longtime family and consumer science professor by dedicating the new Child Development Learning Laboratory (CDLL) in her honor, acknowledging the effort she has put into this project for the past 30 years.

“I joined the AWC faculty full time in 1977,” she said. “Back in those days, the Child Development Center was in a ‘temporary’ building that they had moved into back in the '60s. That building still stands today, just east of our new location.

Facilities were just one of the challenges at AWC.

“The other major problem we had was image,” she said. “Everyone saw it as a sort of day care center, while those of us who were involved in the Early Childhood Development Program envisioned the center primarily as a learning laboratory for training early childhood teachers and doing research. Taking care of the children of students and staff was an important secondary purpose that fit in perfectly.

“Talking among ourselves, we knew we had to raise awareness levels about the learning center if we were ever going to move up the priority list. The first thing we did was change the name from Child Development Center to the Child Development Learning Laboratory. The second thing we did was throw a campus-wide party celebrating 25 years in a ‘temporary’ building," she said.

"This occurred somewhere in the late '80s and we even passed out maps of the building, pointing out the location of termite tracks, mouse holes, cracked tiles and faulty air conditioning. We passed out fly swatters because we were located next to the agriculture land laboratory, so flies came in whenever we left the doors open. We thought it was a gentle and fun reminder that we needed new facilities, but the facilities administrator was not amused and did not attend the party.”

Something finally worked, or almost worked, in 1990 when funding became available, but money that should have been used for the CDLL, was used for adult education. Watson remembers being told, “Adult education needs the money a lot more than early childhood development.”

Back to square one for the efforts of everyone involved. Along the way, Watson said, she had help from a variety of sources. “When (AWC President Don) Schoening arrived, it was Tina Leal who pointed out to him during his opening comments to the faculty that we were not just a K-20 educational institution, but a pre-school through 20 institution. That helped get his attention.”

There were several ideas put forward during this time on how to meet the need for new facilities for Early Childhood Development. None of the ideas panned out and it was eventually the most basic of all problems that helped push CDLL to the top of the priority list: the septic tank backed up.

“I instructed the center director to close the facilities and send the children home, as we could not have the children exposed to risk of illness because of a lack of sanitary facilities,” said Watson. “As more than half the children had mothers who worked in the administration building, they had to leave work and take the children home to care for them. Almost forced to shut down, that really got the attention of the administration. From that day forward, CDLL was on Dr. Schoening’s master plan priority list.”

Even with the project now on a fast track, it was going to be a long time getting the funding and Watson wanted to make sure the design was just right, she said, so it would meet all of their criteria and be a state-of-the-art facility. Working with Alison Keough, the CDLL director, they looked at designs for hundreds of facilities and spent numerous hours working with the architects to make everything perfect. They visited other child care centers and found things they wanted included and things that definitely did not work.

And the result? Open classrooms surround a Zen-like garden play center so that in good weather, the children can move freely from indoor play activities to outdoor activities, all under the watchful eyes of the staff. Of course not every Zen garden has 30-odd screaming pre-schoolers riding tricycles and playing games, but the kids seem happy with the new facility.

A quick stroll around the facility with Watson and Keough will allow a visitor to see the two women are not only enthusiastic about the CDLL but proud of it.

“So many people helped with this project,” said Watson. “Louise Schoening, Dr. Schoening’s wife, has one of the rooms named after her and two trees have been planted to honor Marlene Evans and Tina Leal, both former directors of the center who worked to make this a reality. Dan Hann, vice president for business services, also worked hard and we had the commitment of Bill Smith, facilities director, to make sure it was done right. And then there were just countless people who donated money and time to the project.”

Watson says the facility can be a model for other centers around the state. “We don’t have just Early Childhood Development students using this facility. We have nursing students and (emergency medical technicians) come in to learn how to interact with young children so they can do their job better. We have family psychology students planning their projects and classes around this facility, and of course, reading specialists are visiting us continually.”

As she looks around the facility, her last statement seems a little wistful. “The only problem with this is that it took us 40 years to move out of a temporary building,” she said.