With its financial goal now in sight, Creekside Early Learning, based at the NEO Center in Portage, is focusing on a spring opening.
Creekside has inked a 10-year lease with NEO, or Neighbors Educational Opportunities, an adult education and alternative high school at 5201 U.S. 6.
NEO executive director Rebecca Reiner led Tuesday’s ribbon cutting with the Portage Chamber of Commerce. She remembered the progress made since moving from the half-century-old Portage adult education program housed in an old elementary school on Central Avenue.
After a rezone from the city, NEO opened a new adult education center in 2016 at the former Camelot Lanes.
“For me, I think this is a huge milestone,” she said. Childcare was a struggle at the former adult education building and while its new center had the space, finances were a barrier.
NEO launched a fundraising campaign two years ago with the goal of $2.2 million to renovate about 9,000 square feet of its new, expansive building into an early learning center.
Reiner said it still needs about $500,000 to reach its goal, but eight classrooms are nearly ready for students in the spring. Each classroom offers naming rights for donors.
In August, NEO officials accepted a $750,000 donation from United Way Northwest Indiana to push it closer to its fundraising goal.
Creekside will serve about 130 children, including space dedicated to infants as young as six weeks.
“Ensuring parents their children are safe and getting a strong educational foundation is what we are all about,” said Creekside owner Angie Scott, who also owns Stepping Stones Early Learning Center in Portage.
Officials said the center will open as a Paths to Quality Level Three ranking from the state’s child care rating system. It plans to move to Level 4, the highest rating, and to national accreditation.
Hilary Ledbetter, Stepping Stones program and enrollment director, said Creekside still needs to furnish classrooms, obtain a state license and train staff.
Creekside has two classrooms for infants, two for 1-year-olds, two for 2-year-olds, and the remaining rooms for ages 3- and 4-year-old children. She said the infant rooms can hold up to eight babies and will require two teachers.
Creekside is also reserving half of its slots for children of financially challenged families who have state assistance.
“Creekside will be a game changer for so many parents, regardless of their financial status,” said Reiner.
“Research shows this is the foundation,” said Marienid Gonzalez-Melendez, of Early Learning Indiana, a statewide nonprofit that supported the initiative with a grant.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
