The owner of a Jefferson City child care center hopes to serve more local families by opening a second location.
Courtyard Early Learning Center at 1310 Creek Trail Drive opened in 2002, and Christa Luebbering has owned it for five years.
Luebbering plans to open Courtyard's second facility - at 225 Oscar Drive - this November.
"We've been at capacity for about four years now, and we turn down roughly about 200 kids a year," Luebbering said. " We have a program that provides a very good educational base for the kiddos, and I have an excellent director that's good at staffing teachers, so we decided to go ahead and expand to be able to give more opportunities for families."
Excavation work has already started for the new center, which will be located off Christy Drive in southeastern Jefferson City. Luebbering said she chose the area for its proximity to multiple schools including Jefferson City and Helias Catholic high schools as well as Lincoln University, Capital Region Medical Center and several businesses.
"I have some parents that are at my current location that have mentioned moving to the new center because it's just more convenient for them, and then I also have a lot of people on the waiting list," she said. "My current facility is tentatively booked until about May 2020."
With seven classrooms, the new, 7,800-square-foot center will be set up similarly to the Creek Trail Drive center, although the 2-year-old room at the Oscar Drive center will be divided into two smaller classrooms to keep children in smaller groups.
Both centers will have a capacity for 99 children ages 6 weeks to 5 years.
Also unique to the new center will be the option for a part-time program for ages 3 and older.
"There's really a great need for part-time preschool care, so we are going to allot a certain number of our spots to be considered part time," Luebbering said.
Courtyard plans to add at least 30 employment opportunities once the new center is fully enrolled, she added.
For more information, visit Courtyard Early Learning Center's website, courtyardearlylearningcenter.com.
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