Monee Elementary School will soon be home to a state-of-the-art STEM lab, thanks to a donation valued at approximately $172,000 from the Compost Foundation. The Crete-Monee Board of Education received the good news during its meeting Tuesday.

The new facility, to be named the Compost Smart Lab at Monee Elementary, will be the third of its kind in the district, joining existing labs at Balmoral and Talala elementary schools.

“We are elated that we will be able to offer that to our families,” said Dr. Ghantel Perkins, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning.

The donation covers the full design, production, and installation of the lab, with construction set to begin after summer school concludes. The project is part of a broader district initiative to provide STEM learning experiences for students beginning in elementary school, with a goal of eventually having labs in all five elementary buildings.

The district was chosen by the foundation, which has donated 13 similar labs across the country, because of its PreK-12 structure, which allows for tracking student pathways from early STEM engagement into high school.

“We get to say as students are identifying themselves as ready for STEM lab learning in that experience, where does that take them?” Perkins explained.

The district has hired two facilitators who will serve the three schools with labs, providing instruction for students in grades three through five, with plans to expand to second grade soon.