Treasured early learning center, in danger of closing, finds a new home in planned Edwards’ River Park development
Family Learning Center will take up residence in 10,000 square foot facility due to be completed in fall 2027
Family Learning Center/Courtesy Photo
The Family Learning Center, an early childhood education center in Edwards, has found a new space after nearly nine months of searching.
The Family Learning Center learned last spring that it would need to leave its home of 25 years when its landlord, St. Clare of Assisi School and Parish, opted not to renew the lease.
“We’re really grateful for the church and the communication and the space that they’ve provided us,” said Whitney Young Keltner, the Family Learning Center’s executive director.
The school, which currently provides education and wraparound services to 97 infants, toddlers and preschoolers, would have been forced to close without a new building.
Young Keltner shared the news with families, teachers and the community immediately.
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“That was a really helpful move, because it got people out there, able to start talking and see what could be possible and available,” she said.
However, a new partnership with the Edwards River Park development has secured the future of the Family Learning Center. The center will move into the project’s planned 10,000-square-foot early child care facility, which will be amended to accommodate the school.
The Edwards River Park development project spans 53 acres on the north side of U.S. Highway 6 in Edwards. Aptitude Development oversees the project, which was purchased this fall after the initial development team’s plans stalled and the property was put up for sale in the summer of 2022.
How did this partnership come together?
The connection was made through “town participation,” Young Keltner said.
A group of locals helped Young Keltner connect with a commercial real estate agent, who told her she was “‘looking for a unicorn,'” she recalled. Young Keltner responded, “‘Trust me, I’m fully aware, but we’ve got to try.'”
Twenty minutes later, the agent called Young Keltner back with an idea: The Edwards River Park’s developer happened to be visiting town that week. Did she have time to meet with him?
She would make the time, Young Keltner replied.
The project was initially designed with 10,000 square feet of commercial space and a 2,500-square-foot child care facility. During the meeting, Young Keltner explained how many children and classrooms could fit in the planned and approved 2,500-square-foot space.
For early education, student-to-teacher ratios are lower than K-12 education, and to have infant classrooms, a center needs to have preschool classrooms. Due to the size of the planned center, “you’re probably not going to get a lot of infant/toddler (spaces), which is actually what the need is for our community,” Young Keltner said.
The developer asked how much space the Family Learning Center needed. When Young Keltner said 10,000 square feet, the developer suggested turning the entire commercial space into an early learning center.
The planned 10,000 square feet allocated to commercial space will now be redesigned into a 10,000-square-foot child care facility with 2,500 square feet of outdoor space.
“It just goes to show, you never know exactly how something will show up, but keep focusing on what it is you’re looking for, and don’t give up,” Young Keltner said.
The development will also include a maximum of 440 dwelling units, including up to 170 free-market homes and a minimum of 270 deed-restricted homes. The application for a planned unit development amendment is currently in the Referral Comment Organization stage with the county.
Will the Family Learning Center Stay open while the development is built?
Phase one of the Eagle River Park project is due to be completed in fall 2027, including the Family Learning Center space. “We hope to have students in there in fall of 2027,” Young Keltner said.
The Family Learning Center is currently set to move out of the church in August.
Young Keltner plans to keep the center’s services running during the gap between spaces and is both conducting conversations with St. Clare of Assisi leadership and reaching out to the community for ideas about how to stay open.
“We’re going to keep going,” Young Keltner said. “There’s not going to be a stop of child care.”
While the development will provide the building, the Family Learning Center will be responsible for designing and building out the interior.
“We will be doing a capital campaign to get funds and be able to create that,” Young Keltner said.
Much more than a space
As Eagle County’s early childhood education centers’ waitlists continue to outpace the number of spots available, keeping an existing center open prevents the deficit from increasing.
But preserving the Family Learning Center’s space, Young Keltner said, is about much more than keeping child care slots. “It’s about the development of a child, and that attachment for a child,” she said.
“If you think about it, being able to have that child and that family continue with their same center, their same teachers, their same program, it helps that healthy development and attachment for the child, and also resiliency for them as they grow into adults, as well,” Young Keltner said.
That is why it is crucial to sustain existing child care centers even with new projects under construction and on the horizon.
“The thing that I really want people to know is that we need to retain plus grow some more,” Young Keltner said.
Community effort comes to fruition
Current Family Learning Center families were informed about the new space on Tuesday. In addition to having a lot of questions, “they were just so excited, so thrilled and happy,” Young Keltner said. “It was fun to be able to share that good news.”
Young Keltner expressed “gratitude to the community,” for all the assistance she received in the search for a new home for Family Learning Center. “They’re the reason that we found this.”
“My arm only reaches so far, and they helped us reach so much further, so it’s amazing to hear about what a community can create,” Young Keltner said.
