WINONA, Minn. – Cotter Schools is remodeling the former Assisi Franciscan Tau Center to house an infant and pre-kindergarten care center for 275 children. Cotter hasn’t reported the budget for the project. It will be Winonas largest daycare. Mary Eileen Fitch, Cotter’s president, said the center should be operational early in 2024. The project comes at a time that federal and state workforce spending is growing for families to make daycare more affordable. Fitch said she expects tuition to be in line the marker. Local rates range $130 to $200 a week.
Legacy of Tau. The tau symbol was taken from the Greek alphabet and used widely by the Catholic Church as a sign of conversion and a sign of the cross. In the 13th century St. Francis of Assisi used the symbol as his signature and personal seal.
Tau rotunda. The original centerpiece of the Tau Center was a an eye-stopping circular worship area surrounded almost 360 degrees by gorgeous stained glass. The Franciscan sisters took the stained glass when they retreated to their Rochester mother house and sold the building to Winona State. Whether Cotter will retain the Tau name hasn’t been announced. Cotter currently operates what it calls WeeCare elsewhere on the sprawling former St. Teresa campus on Winona’s West End.
Tau profile
The Tau Center was built in the 1960s by the Rochester- based Assisi Franciscan sisters as a retreat adjacent to the order’s College of St. Teresa. When the college fell on bad times and closed in 1989, Winona State University bought the structure as an overflow dorm and conference center. It was a continuing drain on Winona State’s budget and was sold to Cotter in 2022.