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Woman plans 'educational day care'
By MELANIE AVE © St. Petersburg Times, published December 24, 2000 CROSS CREEK -- Many New Tampa children will have new schools to attend in the next two years as Hillsborough County opens three schools. And now, even preschoolers will have a new place to spend the day if their parents work or go to school. Tampa resident Jana Sappenfield is opening the Primrose School of Cross Creek for children ages 6 weeks to 4 years in the Cory Lake Isles Professional Center off Cross Creek Boulevard, as well as another center in Brandon. The 10,000-square-foot school also will offer after-school care for older children, up to age 12. Construction is scheduled to begin in February and should be completed by August, company officials said. The educational day care, a franchise of the Cartersville, Georgia-based Primrose School Franchising Co., will have a capacity of 186 children. Enrollment will begin early next year. Sappenfield said she chose the Cross Creek area because she found that parents there placed a high value on education. "Primrose is totally different," said Sappenfield, who is selling a Primrose franchise in Lewisville, Texas. "It's not a day care. It's an educational day care." Children have a full academic program in the morning and enrichment exercises, such as music and arts, in the afternoon. Company president Jo Kirchner said children are not just cared for at Primrose, they're taught using a traditional education approach using a copyrighted curriculum for each age level. Primrose operates 83 day care centers in 10 states, including one in Westchase on Whitmarsh Lane. The Westchase school was the first one built in the Tampa Bay area. Each school -- an investment worth about $1.8-million -- has an electronic entrance system and four age-appropriate playgrounds. Sappenfield said she hasn't decided on tuition yet. But Kirchner said tuition ranges from $140 to $210 weekly nationwide depending on the location. Primrose is being built at the site once planned for a self-storage facility. Developer Gene Thomason removed the storage facility from his plans in July after neighbors opposed it. They said they didn't mind having a day care center, but thought a self-storage facility would be unsightly and unnecessary. Nancy Pluchino of Arbor Green said Primrose will fill a need in the growing New Tampa area. Builders continue to put up homes in nearby Arbor Green, Cross Creek, Heritage Isles and Cory Lake Isles. With many of the local day care facilities at or beyond capacity, more families will need additional places to take their children, she said. "It should be something to benefit the community," said Pluchino, whose husband helped lead the fight against the self-storage. - Melanie Ave can be reached at (813) 226-3473 or melanie@sptimes.com.
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