Dr. Bryan Painter, Principal of Keysor Elementary School in Kirkwood

As principal of Keysor Elementary School, I’d like to thank you for your interest in Project IDEA.  By joining our efforts, you’ll be part of something truly amazing, not only for Keysor Kids but for children and adults across our community.

Project IDEA appeals to different people for different reasons – each important in its own right.  As an outdoor extension of our school, Project IDEA will provide appealing spaces for students to engage in high-quality learning, particularly in science.  Inclusive by design, Project IDEA ensures purposeful spaces where children of all sizes and abilities will learn together.  Project IDEA will also provide a natural place for play, filled not with steel or plastic structures but with inviting spaces for learners to creatively engage with nature and with each other.  Finally, our innovative space will offer a connection to the environment, with purposeful opportunities for children and adults to learn responsible stewardship of the world in which we live.  Designed to meet the needs and interests of children, Project IDEA will implore learners of all ages to Imagine, Discover, Explore and have Adventures they’ll treasure forever.

How Project IDEA fits into the community

Project IDEA is where all of these wonderful ideas come together.  It is exciting because isn’t something that fits into a nice little description, but instead implores learners of all ages – kids and adults alike,  to investigate, explore, discover, and imagine the possibilities.  It will mean something different to each person who uses it, and it likely will have different meaning for individuals each time they come.  It is a space that appeals to our childhood instincts of exploration, curiosity, wonder, and play, just as it offers opportunities to stimulate our brains and bodies through education and movement.  Keysor and the Kirkwood School District are committed to “whole child” education, including the arts, health and wellness, critical thinking, character education, teamwork, and social responsibility, and I can’t think of a better space to foster these skills and understandings in children.  I have little doubt that Project IDEA will be a classroom of the future, viewed by schools around the nation as what they hope to have and become.