Windham's Children’s Discovery Center Preschool to close

By Masha Yurkevich

After 33 years in business, the Children’s Discovery Center in Windham is closing.

The Children's Discovery Center has
been a wonderful place for children
and a huge help for families looking
for a safe, fun and secure environment
for children while working.
SUBMITTED PHOTO   

The Children’s Discovery Center has been a part of the Windham community at 48 Roosevelt Trail caring for children of local families since 1990. The center provides care for children from ages 6 weeks up to fifth grade and has designated sections for infants, toddlers, preschool, prekindergarten, and their Kid Zone, from kindergarten through fifth grade.

“All areas are specifically designed for the ages and each part of the center is a value to those who attend,” says Renata Valente, who worked at the Childrens Discovery Center for some time and she is also a parent to a 7-year-old child who has gone there for several years.

“I wouldn’t have chosen any other childcare and I visited many in Windham for my son when we moved here,” Valente said, “Once I found this place, I knew it would be the perfect fit.”

Valente is a full-time student at Southern Maine Community College, currently attending to obtain an associate's degree in early childhood education. She is in her second year of school and aside from working a bit at the Children’s Discovery Center, she has also worked as a substitute for RSU 14 at Windham Primary School which is what she would like to focus on after she gets her degree. She says that working with children in grades K to 3 would be most ideal for her.

Todd Gartsu built this center and kept it going with his staff for many years serving our community. Unfortunately, in the last several years with the impact of COVID, many factors have played a role in why this center is sadly closing its doors. The center is very large and it’s very costly to keep it going and it takes a lot of work, both on the inside as well as on the outside.

“Things people don’t see behind the scenes of what it takes to keep it running and the hard work people put in,” says Valente. “I think he would have loved to keep it going but with the rising cost of everything it’s really become difficult to please everyone by keeping rates low, making sure the staff he has is paid accordingly, the state has cut a lot of funding from COVID and that greatly impacted the way finances were being distributed, to make up for the cost of living. Being a man in this field can’t be too easy; he would do all the work outside and many times late at night as well as during the day and on the weekends. He really loved and took pride in what he built. Being in this field is not easy; it’s not for the weak. It takes a special person to be in this field and I think a lot of folks don’t realize just how much goes into the care of children in a center.”

As a mother, Valente can absolutely say that being able to work full time has been a privilege because of centers like the Children’s Discovery Center.

“Without a safe, skilled and loving environment, I wouldn’t be able to go to school or work, both of which I do full-time,” she says.

Like Valente, many families and children are heartbroken knowing that the center is closing its doors by early fall.

“I think right now the best thing that the community could do to help keep the center open until their closing date is to step in and help with anything possible. For those that have brought their children to the center know how wonderful it is both inside and outside. You won’t find a better place in my opinion. The open concept of the outside is amazing for someone like my son who has ADHD and needs that extra space,” says Valente. “The kid zone center has an amazing playground built for the children to really explore the outside between the rope area, the ‘house’ forts the children have made, the trail MR. 

"More times than I can count I’ve arrived to pick my son up and I’ve seen skills being taught by Todd to the children. He’s huge on life skills and the outdoors. He’s been sitting with kids while he teaches them the mechanics of small machinery with hands on activities that he monitors safely, playing chess with them and teaching them how, or often times, he’d be doing math with the kids and explaining how it works," she said. "There are so many great things he offered that I’m sad to see be gone. This closing feels like such a loss to not just me and the families, but the community. I think that we should just be grateful that he’s given us the chance to be a part of something so great and understand that this must be very difficult for him, too. I know how much he’s put into this, the passion he has for what he’s done and upon talking with him about closing I can see on his face that this is painful for him. I can only assume that he’s making the decision because it’s what best. I hope everyone can be supportive of this decision and the staff that works there.” <