Education officials and kindergarten students from Pioneer School joined in the groundbreaking ceremony for a new Educare facility Thursday morning in West Chicago. (Gary Gibula/Photo for the Tribune)

Education officials in the DuPage County area gathered Thursday morning for the groundbreaking of a new school in West Chicago that will teach disadvantaged children from infancy to age 5.

The concept of Educare is to help certain families so that kids will not fall behind in the learning process as they enter traditional kindergarten.

Nearly 100 adults as well as several classrooms of students from nearby Pioneer School enjoyed the bright sunshine as officials conducted the ceremonial groundbreaking of the new facility.

“This is not just a groundbreaking. We’re making a groundbreaking move to bring Educare to the suburbs where it’s needed,” said Portia Kennel, executive director of the Bounce Learning Network that has fostered Educare schools.

Of the 13 such learning centers in operation across the U.S., Educare of West DuPage is the first to be located in a suburban area.

“With the spread of poverty, there is an absence of opportunity and a sense of hope and possibility,” said Kennel. “We can’t change the opportunities for children unless we go to serve them wherever they are.”

Sited on a 4-acre parcel of land at the corner of Forest Avenue and Pearl Road, the 24,000-square-foot school will contain 12 classrooms and 55 to 60 staff, including 24 teachers, officials said.

Six classrooms will serve up to 48 children under age 3 and, six other classrooms will have up to 102 preschool students, officials said.

Potential students at the new Educare school must first be qualified for the Head Start program, due to federal funding assistance that is involved. Officials said those families will be actively recruited from within the local West Chicago Head Start boundaries. Students from outside the area also may apply for a spot at Educare of West DuPage, but they will not be actively recruited.

Although Educare funds are being used to complete the $9.4 million project, the completed building will be donated to West Chicago Elementary School District 33, which purchased the land from the city last year. But Educare will retain ownership of the operations and programs of the year-round school.

Much of the $8.8 million in funding raised so far has come from the support of major donors including the Gustafson Family Foundation and the Pritzker Family Foundation.

“We have a little ways to go on our goal of $10 million, but we’re doing really well,” said Hawley. “We’ve had a lot of support from the local communities and companies like the Tellabs Foundation, the Jel Sert Company and Ball Horticultural.”

The effort was buoyed last February when a $1.5 million construction grant was awarded as part of the state’s “Illinois Jobs Now!” capital program.

“Jel Sert is one of the larger employers in West Chicago, and we’ve always had an interest in supporting the community,” said company chairman Chuck Wegner. “So this is a wonderful oppoortunity for us to support the future of the area, which I think is reflected in the kids who grow up here.”

Educare will receive ongoing funding from federal programs like Head Start, Early Childhood Block Grants from the State Board of Education and typical child care assistance, which is a blend of state and federal funding.

The cost for families will be similar to the co-payment required for typical state child care assistance.

“It could be as little as a dollar a week or, for some families, as much as 30 or 40 dollars a week,” said Theresa Hawley,

Educare of West DuPage’s board chair. “But it will be just a co-pay. The rest of the program is free.”

The early childhood learning principle, Hawley said, is based on studies that show children of disadvantaged families are subject to an achievement gap that puts them below national standards when they enter kindergarten, generally at age 5.

Citing research from Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, Hawley said “the earlier you start a child’s education, the more impact you can have. When a child comes into Educare before age 2 and stays with us until kindergarten, we’re able to close that achievement gap and the student leaves us at national averages in early literacy, language and emotional skills.”

Officials said enrollment opportunities will be announced later this year, with the highest priority given to disadvantaged families with very low income or teen parents, for example.

The teachers to be hired for the Educare learning center must be certified in early childhood education and be bilingual “because most of the families we serve are going to be from Spanish-speaking homes,” said Hawley. “But regardless of whether a child is from a Spanish or English-speaking home, our program is going to be fully dual language so all kids will be learning in both English and Spanish, across the board.”

Officials may decide to begin enrollment before building construction has been completed, in which case students would be served off-site.

“We may also do a ‘soft startup’ where we wouldn’t be opening the entire building all at once, but gradually enroll children and fill the classroom space,” Hawley said.

Construction on Educare of West DuPage is expected to be completed by February, 2012.

Business officials attending the groundbreaking ceremony said there was a vested interest in quality education.

“Educare’s value to business, like most things, is going to be long term,” said Dave Sabathne, President and CEO of the Western DuPage Chamber of Commerce. “When you have children being educated early on and contributing to the schools and our workforce later on, it helps the students but also engages the parents to become aware of how they can make an impact. That translates to a better community, and attracts and retains more quality employees.”

“So much of the attention on the need for early learning and preparing kids to succeed in school traditionally has been on either urban centers or sometimes rural communities,” Hawley said. “But the fact is, the families have moved to the suburbs and the services haven’t necessarily followed them.”

As a result, Hawley said many suburban school districts are experiencing rapidly rising numbers of children entering kindergarten unprepared to learn at the same pace as some neighboring districts.

“We’re focusing on getting all kids ready to succeed in the excellent schools that we’ve already got in the suburbs,” she said.