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West Irondequoit will lose nearly 100 childcare spots if Inspire! can't find a new site

Inspire! Learning and Childcare's West Irondequoit will have to vacate its site at 330 Pattonwood Drive by the end of June 2024.
Provided by Tony D'Agostino
The Inspire! Learning and Childcare center in West Irondequoit will have to vacate its site at 330 Pattonwood Drive by the end of June 2024.

A childcare center in West Irondequoit is set to close by next summer unless the owner can find a new location in the area.

That would leave the area without daycare options for 93 children.

Inspire! Learning and Childcare in West Irondequoit offers before and after-school programming and early childhood education for infants and toddlers.

“A lot of people sometimes think that we have little infants sitting at a desk. No,” D’Agostino said. “We're really focused on the child's overall development”

The center uses a year-round curriculum to teach kids things like speech, STEM, and motor skills, which fit within nine-key development areas the programming identifies.

"For instance, self-awareness and development is just that, like an infant will start to identify that they have legs, that they have arms, you know, and that they start to manipulate it," he said. "Same with like fine and gross motor skills ... they can start holding, you know, pencils, and the like."

But by the end of June next year, the program will end at 330 Pattonwood Drive.

In a school district vote on Tuesday, West Irondequoit voters approved a Capital Project proposition to relocate the district’s Department of Environmental Services to that property.

The department manages building infrastructure like plumbing and heating and maintains school grounds.

According to the district, the current location of the department is too small to accommodate all staff within the same building, and the condition of the building has deteriorated beyond repair.

The choice to move to 330 Pattonwood Dr. is one the district has said will ensure all operations staff can work within one central location at no cost to taxpayers.

In late April, district leadership issued a statement: “Ultimately, as a public institution, we must prioritize the needs of our entire district and make decisions that are in the best interests of our students and community.”

Without Inspire! the number of childcare slots in the district area will drop from nearly 700 to fewer than 600 according to data from the New York state Office of Children and Family Services.

“It is a very difficult situation for families because they are not going to have options,” D’Agostino said.

The center is currently at capacity and has a waitlist, he said. He’s considering relocating within the same area with the hope of expanding capacity to upwards of 200 slots, but only if he can find the space to do it.

Noelle E. C. Evans is WXXI's Murrow Award-winning Education reporter/producer.
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