Monroe County Community School Corp aims to fill a void with early childhood center

Plans for the new center come as the choices for childhood care in Bloomington have narrowed with recent closures of childhood centers and co-ops.

The MCCSC center plans on accepting 86-90 children for the fall, from 6 weeks of age to pre-kindergarten students. Registration is expected to open before the end of this month, according to Markay Winston, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. 

The school district has wanted to open a larger early childhood center, based on its child-care program at Hoosier Hills Career Center, for some time. The recent closing of the northwest YMCA’s program and Indiana University’s child-care co-ops left some parents without care for their children and school officials with a push to move forward with a new center expected to cost between $1.5 and $1.8 million.

The school district felt a need to fill that void, Winston said, and seized an opportunity to provide more options for the county’s youngest learners.

“We feel like we have a moral and educational responsibility to strengthen opportunities for our youngest learners,” she said.