#Middlebury #Bright&Early #Children’sLearningCenter
Bright & Early employees, Liz Schwalbe, left, and Bailey Cruz, center, joined President April Lukasik, right, to show this newspaper around the new Middlebury children’s learning center. The center plans to open this October. (Marjorie Needham photo)
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
Bright & Early Children’s Learning Center may be new to Middlebury when it opens its doors this October, but the center’s director is not. Bailey Cruz grew up here in Middlebury and attended Middlebury Elementary School and Memorial Middle School. She has been serving as director of the Middletown center, but said she is happy to be returning to the town where she grew up.
Cruz greeted us along with Bright & Early President April Lukasik and Liz Schwalbe, director of the New Milford Center, when we toured the Middlebury center recently. Lukasik said, “I just know there is a need for high-quality daycare in Connecticut.”
That’s what Lukasik decided she would offer when her two children were young. She said she based her centers on what would be best for her two children. She created Bright & Early for them, she said, and that philosophy stays with her. She always asks herself, “What do I want for my two kids?”
Bright & Early celebrates 25 years in the business this year. Since Lukasik founded the business in 1997, it has grown to have centers in Middletown, New Milford, Niantic, North Branford, Old Saybrook, and West Hartford. Middlebury’s learning center is the seventh in Connecticut, and Lukasik said an eighth, at a not-yet-disclosed location in Litchfield County, is expected to open later this year.
Cruz said the center is a joyful place, for children, for their parents and for the employees because of Lukasik’s philosphy. “She really does listen to what people want for the children,” Cruz said. Cruz has been working in early childhood education for nine years, four of those at Bright & Early.
Middlebury’s 12,000 sq. ft. space fills the entire lower level of the building at 489 Middlebury Road probably best known to folks as the Dunkin’ Donuts location. “I love the location,” Lukasik said, “with the privacy feature of being around the back of the building.”
The center is being built to accommodate 80 children under three and 50 over three. Oversized classrooms of roughly 500 sq. ft. provide plenty of room. For example, infant rooms will hold eight infants and preschool rooms will hold 10 children in that size space. Separate rooms will accommodate infants, young toddlers, toddlers and preschoolers.
Yellow, red, green, gray and orange tiles cover a portion of most rooms’ floors. Eating, art and water play will happen there. Wall to wall carpet will cover the balance of each floor.
Fenced-in playgrounds will stretch along the length of the building with three separate playgrounds for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Children won’t go without recreation during inclement weather either. The inside space has two gyms where children will play when it is too hot, too cold, too wet or too snowy to play outside. The gyms also will be used for yoga, meditation and dance classes.
Lukasik said security is a major consideration at all her centers. “We have all the latest technology, so we are really excited about that,” she said. Parents will use a key fob to enter the building and proceed to a fingerprint check-in. Security cameras placed inside and outside will enable the director to view what every camera is seeing from a screen in her office.
Learn more about the center at brightandearly.com. Call 203-528-3400 for more information.
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