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Stafford Early Childhood Center promotes new Early STEM Academy and hosts mobile petting zoo
Summary
Stafford Early Childhood Center promoted a planned Early STEM Academy for the 2025–26 school year with a student music video and hosted a Via Farm mobile petting zoo for hands-on animal interactions and early-learning activities.
Stafford Early Childhood Center promoted a new Early STEM Academy for the 2025–26 school year with a music video featuring students, teachers and STEM ambassadors, and hosted a visit from the Via Farm mobile petting zoo to give children hands-on experiences with farm animals.
A staff speaker at the school said the Early STEM Academy will highlight the engineering design process (EDP) as a core component and is intended to attract student enrollment for 2025–26. "We got our EDP down, our engineering design process," the staff speaker said while describing the music video used to promote the program.
Representatives from Via Farm brought mini goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, ducks and a bearded dragon to the campus. A Via Farm representative described safety and handling guidance provided to students: children were taught to be calm, walk slowly and pet animals gently. The representative said many students were experiencing contact with some animals for the first time and that the animals were used to quiet handling.
The transcript said the school will launch the Early STEM Academy in the 2025–26 school year; the music video was an outreach tool to build interest and enrollment. The visit and promotional work were presented as educational and community-building activities; the segment did not record any school-board policy decisions or budget details related to the new academy.
