Colorado School of Mines breaks ground on child care facility for staff and students
With a 3-year-old and a 2-year-old, Kevin Gravina and his wife are always busy. Gravina is an executive director at the Colorado School of Mines.
"Extremely busy it's a struggle getting them out the door in the morning," he said.
Every morning they leave their home in Golden, take their kids to a child care facility miles away in Arvada and then turn around to come back for work in Golden. The opportunity to have their children at the facility came after having to spend time on a long waitlist.
"It was very challenging. I think for the most part the biggest challenge is in the infant side," he said.
Having experienced the struggle firsthand, Kevin Gravina says he was excited as the college's treasury director to help pull together a project on campus that will involve construction of a new building where they'll offer child care to employees and students.
Colorado School of Mines Executive Vice President Kirsten Volpi says the project will fill a need for employees and strengthen the school overall.
"In order to be able to help with retention, to help recruit more diverse faculty -- in particular women -- this is something that is really important for us," she said.
It was an idea formed years ago, but put on hold during COVID and then reignited this year with construction finally underway. The brand new facility will welcome more than 100 children from infants to Pre-K.
"Having a benefit like this is going to really make a big difference for us. We'll have a more of balanced relationship with our community as well as our employees," she said.
While it's still more than a year away from opening, Gravina is already looking forward to a shortened commute.
"We will at least be able to take our youngest here, maybe sometimes even in the bike trailer," he said.
The cost will be in line with other facilities in and around Denver, but the school hopes to receive grants in order to try and cut some of the costs to graduate students.