Port Allen-based Kidz Karousel Early Childhood Development Center has expanded its growing business with the addition of a fifth child care center on the campus of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center.
The company opened its newest location June 29 in a child care facility previously operated for OLOL by a different provider, whose lease expired June 30.
OLOL Vice President of Mission Coletta Barrett says the partnership between the hospital and the child care center was more than a year in the works and came about, in part, because of OLOL’s commitment to seeking out and partnering with minority-owned and disadvantaged business enterprises.
Kidz Karousel is owned by husband and wife Derrick and Tessa Holloway, who are Black.
“It was very intentional that we sought them out and we’re thrilled it worked out,” Barrett says. “They’ll be able to do much more for us than our previous provider.”
Though OLOL employees receive application preference, the center will be open to others, Tessa Holloway says.
The new OLOL location comes as Kidz Karousel is preparing to expand its downtown location on Main Street to accommodate more children. Tessa Holloway says the pandemic and uncertainty surrounding the coming school year has created increased demand for services.
“We lost business at the beginning of the pandemic but now that people have gone back to work we have waiting lists,” says Holloway, whose centers care for more than 800 children. “People need to work so they need child care. We’re kind of an essential service like health care. People need it in good times and in bad.”
The Main Street facility is licensed for 170 children but has only around 50 currently, so Holloway is planning to accept more school-age children who will be going to school only part of the week because of staggered schedules. She says the company is building out the second floor of its location to accommodate the anticipated demand and has been fielding calls from school teachers looking for new jobs and eager to help kids with online learning.
“A lot of teachers have been calling us, saying they don’t want to go back to the school system because they’re afraid,” she says. “They can come to us and only be around 15 children, whereas in the school system they’re going to be around hundreds and thousands of kids.”
Kidz Karousel is also moving forward with plans for a sixth location in Rouzan. The facility is running behind schedule, however, because of the pandemic. Originally slated to be open this fall, Holloway is now planning to break ground in the fall, which would put the facility on track to open in summer 2021.
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