The North Judson-San Pierre School Board was recently informed about the possibility of leasing space at the Middle School building to a new tenant who would help bring an additional pre-school option into the County.
Earlier this year, the owner of Max’s Playhouse in Culver, Brandy Pohl, applied for and received an education capacity-building grant.
The grant award totaled approximately $54,646 and the required 5 percent match was provided by the Starke County Economic Development Foundation. The funding opportunity was offered through the Indiana Family and Social Service Administration’s Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning.
During the September NJ-SP School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Annette Zupin told members that Pohl has been talking with school officials about the possibility of utilizing space on the school’s campus to do bring a new pre-school program into Starke County.
Zupin noted, “She wants to start SEEDs at North Judson and that’s Schools Engaging Early Development and she would like to lease a classroom for a mixed-aged preschool group here at North Judson-San Pierre Middle School. We already have Adventure Island Preschool, this would be in addition to that.”
Adventure Island Preschool has been assisting local families for years and has occupied a space in the NJ-SP Middle School building since 2016.
Dr. Zupin told school board members to expect to address the potential new tenant in a future meeting and expressed her excitement about the possibility of having a specific area dedicated to early childhood learning.
Zupin shared, “This may be something within the next month or so where I would have a lease agreement ready to go.”
She continued, “I think it would be great to have a pre-school wing in our Middle School.”
Neither preschool is specifically endorsed by the school corporation or will be offered any type of preferential treatment. NJ-SP is simply providing the businesses with a facility to call home.
To understand the stark need for additional childcare facilities in the region, consider some of the following statistics:
The Data Center for Early Learning in Indiana notes that 72 percent of rural families in the state live in an area without a licensed childcare provider and in some portions of Starke County more than 80 percent of the households with young children have all parents in the labor force.
According to the Center for American Progress, most of Starke County is considered a “Child Care Desert”, meaning that more than 50 children under the age of 5 live in an area that contains either no child care provider or so few options that there are more than three times as many children as there are licensed child care slots.
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