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Janine Edmundson and her husband Jon Booker are
pleased with the quality of care Sarah receives at Duke
Children's Campus. (photo by Butch Usery)
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On-Campus Child Care Meets Family's Needs
Janine Edmundson and her family were happy to move
into their new home last June. But by leaving their old
home, Edmundson and her husband were also moving
away from a child care facility they had relied on for
their three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Sarah.
For a time after the move, Edmundson and her husband
continued to shuttle their daughter to and from the
child care center. "It was very hard," said Edmundson,
assistant director of Business & Finance with the
Department of Pharmacy at Duke University Hospital.
"We were driving an hour and a half each way."
Just as Edmundson and her husband began exploring
other child care options for their daughter, it was
announced that Duke Children's Campus, the university's
on-campus child care center and preschool, was
expanding. The 6,900-square-foot, $2 million expansion,
which was recently completed, increased the capacity
of the center to 153 children, with a majority of the 77
new spaces designated for infants and toddlers like
Edmundson's daughter, Sarah.
Hearing about the expansion, Edmundson placed her
daughter's name on a waiting list, and a space opened up
soon after for Sarah.The whole family was glad to find
a child care center closer to work and home."We were
very fortunate to make that move," Edmundson said.
It's not just convenience that makes Edmundson feel
good about sending her daughter to the Duke Children's
Campus, which is managed by Bright Horizons Family
Solutions, an organization that provides work-site child
care for more than 480 companies throughout the
United States, including SAS, GlaxoSmithKline and IBM
in the Triangle. Last March the Duke Children's Campus
received the highest rating given to a child care facility by
the state - a five-star rating from the North Carolina
Division of Child Development.
Edmundson praises the activities at the center, which
she says allow her daughter to meet other children,
to feel comfortable about learning and to be creative in
a variety of activities. "It's a wonderful curriculum," Edmundson says. "The staff is very responsive."
The working mom is also pleased that the cost of Duke
Children's Campus is on par with the price of other
child care centers in the Triangle. "I'm very,
very pleased with this benefit," Edmundson said.
In making the move to a new child care center, quality
wasn't something that she was willing to compromise
on."We'd still be driving an hour and a half each way if
the Duke Children's Campus wasn't a top-notch facility," Edmundson said.
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