Permits for school, daycare approved

Published 3:11 pm Thursday, April 13, 2017

A daycare and a private educational facility in Prince Edward received special use permits following unanimous approval from the county’s board of supervisors Tuesday.

The permits will allow a private educational facility, located in Rice, to have up to 30 students, while the daycare, located off of Simpson Road near Prospect, can have up to 49 children.

The private educational facility will be operated at Jamestown Presbyterian Church, located at 1751 Lockett Road, according to county documents.

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The approved permit states transportation for the facility will be by parents, and the hours of operation will be from 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

“The program itself will utilize a lot of outdoor center learning programs. We’ll have outdoor gardens for the students designed to grow food, things like that,” said Angela Whittaker, who spoke as applicant for the permit for the educational facility. “We’ll also be operating a low-cost food market where they will design and create their own products, so there’s a lot of entrepreneurial-type education.”

The daycare will be operated by The Bridge Church, located at 45 Simpson Road. The daycare is proposed to operate from 6:30 a.m.-7 p.m. and is separate from the private educational facility.

Both the educational facility and daycare were recommended for approval by the county’s planning commission following a unanimous vote March 21.

“We really are interested in creating an educational option for the parents so that they can have part homeschooling and support from an educational program that is very much child-centered and community-oriented,” Whittaker said during the commission meeting. “We’re very interested in forming, and have already started forming, relationships with community members, sponsors … It’s a very community-centered and community service-oriented school curriculum.”

During the public hearings for both the daycare and educational facility at both the planning commission and supervisors meetings, no one spoke against either permit.

Members of the community praised Whittaker for her teaching abilities during the commission meeting.