EXCERPT FROM: Gaston Gazette
By Rebecca Clark
Parents looking for child care options have been offered a new choice.
A Higher Learning Childcare Academy will open soon at 104 S. Carpenter St. in Kings Mountain creating 25 to 30 new jobs.
Danyel Phelps, operations manager, said they are anticipating completing the licensing this Friday.
Barbara and Michael Minder originally opened a facility on Airport Road in Shelby 16 years ago and recently decided it was time to expand.
After-school program
The couple will also start an after-school program later this month at Christ for the Nations Church on Polkville Road.
“The availability opened up and she felt the call to open up in Kings Mountain,” said Phelps. “Ms. Minder started out as small home center in her home. She realized that children in Cleveland County were not having a difference made in their lives.”
Michael said they saw the need for quality child care in the area and decided to meet that need.
“She’s had hundreds of children pass through her doors over 16 years,” Phelps said.
Many of them are now college graduates, she said.
The program at Christ for the Nations is church-based and does not have to be licensed.
Included in the Higher Learning curriculum are opportunities for students to learn dance, gymnastics and even Spanish.
“At a very young age it all starts happening then,” Phelps said.