Little Knights Learning Center-LPC Campus Director Tesha Dietrick (fourth from left) provides brief remarks ahead of the Monday, Jan. 20 ribbon cutting at La Porte City Elementary. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

LA PORTE CITY, IOWA — With the snip of a ribbon, Little Knights Learning Center-La Porte City Campus (LKLC-LPC) officially marked the opening of its temporary location inside La Porte City Elementary School this past Monday, Jan, 20.

During a ceremony held that evening to which the public was invited, Union Superintendent John Howard along with members of both Union’s board of education and LKLC-LPC’s steering committee/board celebrated the work begun in parallel with Dysart back in 2017 to bring a child care center to both communities.

In 2019, Dysart blazed the trail by temporarily opening a center inside three repurposed classrooms at Dysart-Geneseo Elementary while fundraising for a permanent facility. Through a $1.4 million capital campaign, the first Little Knights Learning Center was eventually constructed as a standalone facility between the elementary and middle schools on a district-owned lot used for recreation soccer; the facility officially opened its doors on July 27, 2021, at 1102 Clark Street.

The long-running effort to bring a child care center to La Porte City was resurrected in January 2023 due to a critical shortage of child care openings. According to data shared with the newspaper by Union school board member Maureen Hanson, over the last decade, roughly 80 childcare spaces were lost in the La Porte City area due to the closure of multiple in-home providers with at least three more looking to shutter in 2025.

Similar to the path Dysart took to address its status as a ‘child care desert’ (a designation given by Iowa Child Care Resource & Referral), La Porte City’s new-albeit-temporary center will be housed on the south side of LPC Elementary in four classrooms, serving about 50 children aged 2-12 (including wrap-around care) weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Cruz Larson, 3, works to assemble a puzzle inside Little Knights Learning Center–La Porte City (LKLC-LPC) Campus’s 5-year-old/wrap-around room at La Porte City Elementary School on Jan. 20 ahead of the new child care center’s ribbon cutting ceremony. Cruz’s mother Bre Larson (not pictured) is president of the non-profit LKLC-LPC board. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Once the standalone facility is constructed and opened on land deeded to the center’s non-profit by the Union Community School District and located directly south of LPC Elementary, up to 90 children aged six weeks through elementary school age will be served. School-affiliated 3-year-old preschool will also be offered, a program La Porte City has been without for two years.

To that end, LKLC-LPC’s board has commissioned Levi Architecture based in Cedar Falls to create preliminary designs and architectural renderings for the building and property layout. Fundraising for the project’s $2.85 million capital campaign began in earnest some two years ago (nearly $250,000 has been raised to date) and will continue through early 2026 with plans to begin construction sometime that same year.

The new facility is slated to open in the fall of 2027.

“I’m very excited for the Little Knights Learning Center–LPC Campus to be opening,” Director Tesha Dietrick said in a Union CSD news release. “This will be a great opportunity for the families and community of La Porte City. When we grow our children, we grow LPC.”

Prior to LKLC-LPC, Dietrick, who lives in La Porte City, spent 11 years working as a teacher at Head Start in Marion.

The entrance to the new Little Knights Learning Center–La Porte City (LKLC-LPC) Campus pictured on Monday, Jan. 20, during an open house held in celebration and anticipation of the child care center’s official opening on Tuesday, Jan. 21. The center is temporarily taking up residence across four classrooms on the south end of La Porte City Elementary until a new standalone building is constructed in 2027. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Following the ribbon-cutting Monday evening — during which a colorful blanket was used rather than a ribbon — LKLC-LPC began serving children the very next morning.

For more information including how to register for child care, join the waitlist for next school year, and/or donate to the capital campaign, visit littleknightslpc.org, email lklclpc@gmail.com, or call 319-342-2221.

The 2/3-year-old classroom at Little Knights Learning Center-LPC (LKLC-LPC) Campus pictured this past Monday. All four child care classrooms had been in use at LPC Elementary last school year. According to Union school board member Maureen Hanson, a lot of reconfiguring took place in order to temporarily house LKLC-LPC at the school. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Members of the Little Knights Learning Center–La Porte City (LKLC-LPC) Campus non-profit board including president Bre Larson, far right, along with Union school board vice chair Maureen Hanson (partially obscured – back row, far right) and La Porte City ​​Chamber of Commerce member Janel Ruzick (front row, second from right) gather around LKLC-LPC Director Tesha Dietrick (fifth from left) as she cuts the “ribbon” on the new child care center located inside La Porte City Elementary School on Monday, Jan. 20. The center’s location at LPC Elementary is only temporary while the board works to build a standalone facility directly south of the school. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER