The plans for the new Preschool

Go here to see the updated LEC/Preschool plan from August 2025.

We are happy to share the latest floor plan for what will become the new Pasadena Community Church preschool and the renovated Life Enrichment Center.
Construction will begin late this year and will be completed in late summer or early fall 2026, depending on the permitting process. We will have a lot more updates on the timeline once renovation begins.

The overview
When we envisioned this renovation a few years ago, we thought we might use the entire LEC building for the new preschool. As you see, the new plan is to keep the church administrative offices and some meeting space on one side of the building while the preschool remains on the side that is currently classrooms. This accomplishes a number of goals, including keeping the preschool secure, preserving the gym for sports and worship and staying within our budget of about $2 million.

Let’s start with an overview, then we will zoom in for some details. The gym space will be untouched. As you face the building, the offices stay on the right side, and the school is on the left. The portico will be the drop-off area as it is now.

The preschool classrooms will each have their own bathroom. The gym locker room bathrooms will remain untouched. Let’s zoom in on the preschool rooms. Each room is sized to meet accreditation standards. Classrooms for one-year-olds require a door directly to the outside.
The plans make plenty of room for the VPK classes as well. Two VPK classrooms will be on what is now the stage. We are adding windows to the exterior walls of the stage space.
We have an electronic lift that will accommodate handicap access. The entire preschool space will have electronic lock access.

We have not designed the playground yet but are in conversation with playground design companies about that now. The playground will be in the area bounded by what is now the stage and the 2-year-old classrooms. Notice that there is a bathroom accessible from the playground.

Let’s move to the other side of the building now.
Notice that what is now the big conference room will become one-year-olds and two-year-olds rooms. The original plans called for this room to be the new Thrift Mall but we heard concerns from both parents and from the thrift shop leaders that the space was not ideal for that purpose. The offices and workroom will be mostly unchanged with the pastor moving to the front corner of the building. Part of what is currently the workroom will become a conference room. The existing kitchen space is unchanged. One serving line will be taken out to make room for storage.

Now that we have set the floorplan, we have lots of logistical decisions ahead including where to host a wide range of ministries from chair yoga to quilting classes and ESOL, food pantry, and more. We imagine that the preschool classrooms will be used for other purposes outside of preschool hours. For example, we imagine that Sunday School classes will meet in some of the preschool classrooms. The vision is to achieve efficient use of the space we maintain.

The road ahead
We have $2 million given to PCC as a gift to make this plan a reality, which enabled us to restart this design work. The engineers at Churches by Daniels are currently working on the electrical and plumbing designs. Those will go to the city permitting offices soon, a process that usually takes a couple to a few months to complete.
Then the construction begins.

We expect the sale of the “soccer field” property to close early in October. The second closing will occur about a year later, involving the property that is currently the home to the preschool and the thrift mall.

In the meantime, the church has been moving rapidly, updating the LEC air conditioning systems, repairing and resurfacing the roof, resurfacing the parking lot and portico floor.
We are updating our AV systems in the LEC that will enable the preschool to hold events in the gym.

We are currently unsure whether the preschool will move just before the start of the fall semester (August 2026) or if it will wait until the beginning of the 2027 semester in January. The August date is our target. The developers purchasing the properties have pledged to work with us to ensure a smooth transition of the preschool to the LEC building.