Welsh Hills School Building-Use Partnership

First Presbyterian Church is excited to announce a new building-use partnership with Welsh Hills School (WHS), to offer a child-care program in our church facility beginning this fall.

WHS is an independent, accredited, non-profit school, established in 1979 and located in Granville.  At their main campus, WHS currently serves students from eighteen months old to twelfth grade.  They are seeking to expand their school’s existing early childhood program to include care for infants from twelve weeks to seventeen months old.

A recent study by Grow Licking County indicated that a staggering 3,815 new childcare spots are needed in our county alone.  Even though this expansion for WHS will be a relatively small program, it will help to meet some of that need for care locally.

Beginning in September, WHS will use two classrooms on the first floor of the education building, and the shared restroom in between.  (Some longtime members will recall that there was another childcare program operating in those very same rooms years ago.)  This will give WHS a dedicated wing of the building, with its own entrance opening into the alley.  We have plenty of space elsewhere in the church building to accommodate the office and quilting group currently housed in those classrooms.

The program will be entirely led and administered by WHS staff.  They are planning to officially open the program and begin providing care in September.  Initially, this is a one-year pilot project, which can be renewed if both parties are amenable. 

The church will benefit from this arrangement by becoming better known as a vibrant center of activity, with lots of people—especially young families—coming into our building on a regular basis.  It will bring in significant additional revenue for the church.  And most important, it will help to address a pressing, well-documented need in the wider community.

We have every expectation that this new partnership will mean great things for First Presbyterian Church, Welsh Hills School, and working families in and around Granville.