Poplar Bluff Schools has been awarded a $27,000 grant from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to use 12,500 pounds of recycled tire material to surface a 1,700-square-foot portion of the playground at the new Early Childhood Center.

The Poplar Bluff Board of Education approved a $5.9 million bid, lower than anticipated, for Brockmiller Construction to build a new Early Childhood Center on the Kindergarten site, after carefully planning since December 2016.

The Poplar Bluff School District’s first preschool age-specific Early Childhood Center is set to go out to bid, allowing time for final consideration by the Board of Education in October.