Bainbridge Island Child Care Center has found a new home for Kids Club, its afterschool program catering to third- through sixth-graders, in the Coppertop Business Park.
Housed in the former Island Art Center space at 9463 NE Business Park Lane, Kids Club will share a building with CrossFit Outcome, Bainbridge Island Boxing Club and Island Aikido.
Families of Kids Club children were recently notified of the new location.
“We are … very enthusiastic about the array of nearby activities, including dance, climbing, and martial arts, to which staff could provide foot shuttles,” board of trustees president Sarah Morgan and executive director Shelley Long wrote in a letter to care center families.
At the end of June, Kids Club was forced to vacate its previous space, two portable classrooms owned by the Bainbridge Island School District, to accommodate heightened kindergarten enrollment at Ordway Elementary. The school district allowed Bainbridge Island Child Care Center to move its program to the Ordway gym for the duration of the summer while the center’s staff looked for a more permanent location.
The space at Coppertop Business Park is smaller than the two portables, meaning Kids Club may have to scale back enrollment when it moves on Sept. 2.
Long estimated the center will be licensed to accommodate approximately 30 kids per day at the new location. Last year, Kids Club hosted upwards of 50 kids per day.
“It may be less than we wanted, but it is in a great spot,” Long said of the new space. “[The center has] been in existence for more than 40 years and we did not want to close. We are thrilled we didn’t have any lapse in coverage.”
In order to offset the loss of space and maximize enrollment, the center may shift the grade ranges for Kids Club and Big Kids, its program for kindergarten through second-graders.
“We’re crunching numbers to see if we’re going to make an adjustment,” Long said.
Returning families can reserve their Kids Club spots now, but new families will have to wait to register until after the licensing process is complete, when Long has a final enrollment number.
Bainbridge Island Child Care Center will continue to look for a sustainable long-term solution that combines its two school-age programs in the same location.
But with two-year leases, Long expects that Kids Club and Big Kids, which operates out of the Little Red School House, will remain where they are through 2017.
