Today we’d like to introduce you to Danella Kirk.
Hi Danella, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I guess my starting point would be a little girl around the age of 8/9 pretending her stuff toys were her students. While I was pretend playing I had no idea it would later become my reality.
Fast forward to adult years, I started working with children, I begin that journey as a teachers, assistant, I later became a lead then an assistant director. God blessed me with this journey of owning my own facility at the start of COVID.
When COVID happened, the school I was working at as an assistant director had closed for a few. I had gotten hurt so I was home, I was like, bills still needed to be paid so what am I going to do?
The only thing I know is childcare. So I decided to move from where I was living to find a place with an extra level so I can start having an I home care. God blessed me with the prefect house and that’s where it all kicked off.
I started my business in my home and after almost 2 years of trying to find a building, I finally found one. We have been opened in our brick and mortar business for 4 years. We have the capacity to serve 49 families in our community. Our school is small, very family oriented type of feel. All the teachers and kids know each other.
After 2 years of opening God blessed us with another building, but this building was just for kiddos with special needs. We are the first licensed facility in our community that just serve kids with special needs. We were getting a lot of calls because Daycare’s were not accepting children with special needs, and they were putting them out because they weren’t able to cure for them the way they ought to be cared for and I decided to create a space for these children because everyone deserves a space to learn and grown, and that is exactly what we have created at our center. We have been serving families for 2 years at that location.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth road, I think the biggest struggle for us as it is with any other business after Covid is finding the right staff. For my business it is important for us to hire teachers who have the desire to love and teach children.
For our school for kids with special needs our biggest challenge was finding resources.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Sparks Early Learning Academy and Sparks Adaptive Development Academy ?
We serve families in our community by providing a school where children are loved and cared for:
We are known for having a very family feel to our schools and having loving teachers.
Our school for kids with special needs sets us apart and at our other site our small classroom sizes.
We offer a fun loving safe educational environment where Kids are our top priority and us believing our schools allow children to grow.
At SELA we are also approved for weekend and night care out hours are 6:30AM-6:00Pm second shift starts 6:30pm – 5:00AM.
At SADA our hours are 6:30AM- 4:30PM.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I couldn’t have done this without God first and foremost. I have an amazing director Alysia Shifflett and our office assistant Gracie Smith. They both go above and beyond and our amazing staff.
At SADA I would like to acknowledge the MiX- Delivery that covers tuition for families who aren’t able to afford tuition. Pua, Megan and Ashley have been so good to us.
Our amazing families that supports us in all we do, we have families that show up to every event, families that brings in supplies, we have families who are always posting us on social media.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sparksacademies.com/sada?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio
- Instagram: https://www.sparksacademies.com/sada?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio
- Facebook: https://www.sparksacademies.com/sada?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio
