Yellow Brick Road to make room for all children at Mason Drive facility
photo by
Abri Nelson
By Abri Nelson
Older children will be joining the younger ones when Yellow Brick Road, one of the county’s largest daycare centers, opens an expanded facility on Mason Drive next spring.
About 50 older children remain where the center has been housed for more than 20 years, in the basement of R.E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church.
The expansion will be in the form of modules built by vocational students at Rockbridge County High School.
Lexington City Council and Planning Commission cleared the way for Yellow Brick Road’s plans on Oct. 5 by creating a zoning exception for educational facilities in general.
Two years ago, half of the children at Yellow Brick Road moved to a house on Mason Drive near Stonewall Jackson Hospital when the program grew too large for the church.
“The main thing is to be at one place,” said Dan Pezzoni, the Yellow Brick Road board member in charge of expansion. “The church location has been wonderful, but it’s hard on parents who have two children, one in each location.”
The plans for expansion call for four modules to be built separately and then joined to create one building, which will be connected to the existing building by a walkway or a deck. The plans did not resolve the question of whether the walkway would be covered or uncovered. This led to the question of whether the proposal was for two buildings on one lot, a violation of the zoning code.
“I have to say I’m very happy,” said City Council member Mimi Elrod. “They’ve done a wonderful job supporting young parents as they try to make their way.”
Construction by high school students was proposed by Alice Waddell, the president of the Yellow Brick Road board. The Building Trades class will construct the modules at the high school’s Vocational Technology Center and then have them trucked to Mason Drive next spring.
The Building Trades class usually builds houses for Habitat for Humanity during the school year. Waddell approached the class’s teacher, Kurt Bennett, with the proposal, which would give the students more experience and save money for Yellow Brick Road.
Plans call for classrooms, space for a garden, large windows that are low enough for the children to look outside, hardwood floors, and a low-level indoor play area for when the weather is bad.
The modules will create a courtyard effect, according to Pezzoni. This will aid in creating a peaceful learning environment and also in exposing the children to the outdoors, which Campbell believes is integral to learning.
Yellow Brick Road draws children from the city and every area of the county and, by providing scholarships for low-income families, from every family background.
“This is a place where a child can be a child,” said Marc Conner, a former board member and the father of three sons who have gone to Yellow Brick Road. “They learn how to play, share, and fight. They learn how to exist as a group.”
Yellow Brick Road was started in 1977 at a time when parents had few options for childcare in the county. Today, Glasgow Headstart Center serves a comparable number of children, but in four locations.
Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.
Lead supervisor: Prof. Claudette Artwick
Reporting supervisors:
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd