Angela Griffin enjoys a challenge.

The Norman Center YMCA's newest director speaks with the confidence of a woman eager to give the center a facelift and restore one of the Federal Way's treasures into the public asset the community deserves.

"We need to let the community know we're still here and continuing our commitment to serving children and adults," Griffin said.

Since taking her position at the beginning of the July, Griffin and her staff have worked diligently to achieve that goal.

"It's been really busy," Griffin said with a laugh that indicated "busy" might be an understatement describing the structural and philosophical renaissance currently going on inside the YMCA.

Since opening its doors 11 years ago, the Norman Center has undergone what Griffin frankly calls "a period of stagnation."

In her eyes, the center had lost its focus on education, and had tattered its reputation as a learning center by devolving into an elaborate daycare facility.

"Parents aren't looking to us for daycare," Griffin said, "They're looking to us for preschool."

"We were overrun with drab and dreary walls and cluttered rooms," Griffin said during a tour of the YMCA.

"There were no goals to the activities," Griffin added, "no materials that helped kids preschoolers get ready for kindergarten."

She described the d/cor of the 11-year-old classrooms as "office-like," and her team began their renovation by painting the spaces in vivid and stimulating shades of primary colors.

"I'm working to help us answer the question, 'How can we excite the community about what we do?" Griffin said.

They've begun by getting themselves excited about providing their students with the best preschool program in Federal Way.

"We've got our staff out shopping for new materials right now," she added.

The new director reaffirmed her commitment to education by steering the Norman YMCA back towards its original objective: preparing preschool-aged children for the rigors of kindergarten, and down the road, the WASL.

From the ashes of once lackluster preschool program, Griffin and her staff have developed the Early Learning Academy, and enhanced preschool education designed to prepare children to meet state standards set for kindergarten readiness.

As part of the Academy, qualified staff will assess the children to determine individual growth and developmental needs and provide a structured learning environment with developmentally appropriate activities.

The program emphasizes the early development of areas such as math reasoning, language development and motor skills. It also utilizes specific learning centers within the classroom, providing students with a clear set of objectives to broaden their skill sets.

"We want to prepare our students with these skills so that when they get to kindergarten they're ready to sit down and learn," Griffin said.

The Early Learning Academy even boasts an on-site cook to prepare the students' meals and an elaborate outdoor playground to promote physical activity.

"More and more people are realizing that (success down the road) starts in preschool," she added. Griffin cited a 2005 survey that suggested that more than half of all students entering kindergarten were not, according to their teachers, adequately prepared.

Griffin said that the Early Learning Academy has the capacity for 60 enrolled students (with three teachers per 20-student classroom), and currently has more than 20 of those slots filled prior to its opening September 10.

The director said she has stayed busy networking within the community to spread the word about the new preschool offering at the YMCA.

But it hasn't been easy.

"There's been a concern about our reputation in the past," Griffin said, "that we're serving a higher level of low-income families and students."

"Our facility is simply not financially structured to accommodate more than 25 percent of its enrollment from families on a subsidy," she confirmed.

She said she feels positive the changes underway at the center will completely restore the community's faith in its own YMCA.

Griffin, a resident of Federal Way and an actively involved community member, transferred to the Norman Center Y from the downtown Seattle Branch.

"I was brought in there to help them make some positive changes," Griffin said, "and I achieved my goal."

Now she's returned to her community to do the same for Federal Way's YMCA.

"I've always been active locally," she Griffin said. "This job fits right in as something for me to do for Federal Way."

For more information or to enroll your preschooler in the Early Learning Academy, contact the Norman Center YMCA at (253) 838-4708.