A new daycare facility called Crossroads Academy set to open this July to combat the lack of daycare options for Crossville’s school-aged children.
Co-Owner Laura Brock is a retired teacher. She said she has seen parents struggle for years to care for their children in the hours immediately after school. Brock said the facility will be available for children from kindergarten to sixth grade.
“We were constantly telling parents that, you know, that were scurrying around, trying to find care for their kids, that, you know, that we didn’t know of any,” Brock said. “And it’s just something that was kind of a passion of ours that, after we retired from the school system, that we would try to do something about that void in the daycare system in Cumberland County.”
Brock said the daycare will be at a space in the First United Methodist Church in Crossville that they are leasing from the church. She said they are trying to get connected with the school district’s bus system so students from the nearby Glenn Martin Elementary and Stone Elementary can be taken straight to the daycare after school.
Brock said their space in the church has a playground and gymnasium for children to enjoy.
“They are actually not going to be involved in the running of the program at all,” Brock said. “They are just going to be our landlords, and thankfully so. They have a good facility.”
Brock said many children in the area have to go home after school and stay with older siblings, grandparents, or even be unattended until their parents get home.
“We just felt like, that this would this would give an opportunity for parents to not have that burden of worrying about their children,” Brock said. “But not only that, it also helps with putting parents to work. There are a lot of parents that are not able to work because they don’t have childcare after school.”
Brock said the facility is being funded by donations and the co-owners’ personal funds.
“We have had some donations from some other community leaders, and we have had some help from Upper Cumberland Development District with, you know, advocating for our program,” Brock said. “But that’s at – it at this time that are all the financial sources that we are using.”
Brock said Crossroads Academy will have its grand opening on Monday, July 29.
The post New Crossville Daycare Aims To Alleviate Lack Of Options appeared first on News Talk 94.1/AM 1600.