A 1949 photograph shows the North Tyler Day Nursery when it was housed at Texas College.

North Tyler Day Nursery is thriving since moving into the old Mamie Griffin Elementary School on North Border Avenue. Enrollment is up and it has started an after-school program and a summer program.

The nursery moved in December 2013 under a lease with Tyler ISD after Griffin Elementary opened a new school building.

“It’s wonderful,” Jim Wooldridge, president of the nursery’s board, said. “We never realized how this would change the whole thing.”

The nursery moved in with 43 children and has grown in the last 16 months to serve 90 in its larger quarters. The board’s strategic goal is to have 180 children by 2018.

Wooldridge believes windows and larger classrooms at Griffin have contributed to less discipline problems. The nursery had been housed in a windowless, smaller facility in the Grand Manor Apartment Complex behind Texas College.

“We had no choice but to leave,” Wooldridge said, when the owner of the complex needed to tear down the building and build a clubhouse.

The move turned out to be “the best thing that ever happened,” because now the nursery has better accommodations in the former Griffin School, Wooldridge said.

Established by a group of concerned citizens as a nonprofit in August 1939, the nursery celebrated its 75th anniversary last year. The facility is licensed by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

“It was developed to serve the needs of single mothers who needed a safe place for their children to be while they worked,” Sonja Watson, executive director, said. The nursery was designed to help children develop mentally, physically and emotionally in a pleasant learning environment, according to the program’s mission statement.

The nursery is no longer limited to single parents, but is still geared for low-income families and tries to serve those who have the greatest need, Ms. Watson said. The nursery operates from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

“This North Tyler Day Nursery prepares children to be ready to learn when they go into the public schools,” Ms. Watson said.

“It provides them not only the social skills necessary to participate in a classroom environment, but it also provides them with pre-academic training and skills so they can function and be ready to gain the knowledge that they are going to get in kindergarten so they can be ready to be successful, contributing citizens,” Ms. Watson said.

The nursery serves children from 18 months old to 5 years old. The after-school program currently serves 16 children up to age 12 the nursery picks up at school. The program once only had two or three participants whose parents brought them, but participation has tripled since the utilization of a 15-passenger van last fall.

This year is the first for a summer program that has just started, serving about 10 youngsters, ages 5 or 6 through 12.

For Audrey Hawkins, her first thought was to send her great-nephew to the nursery since her uncle, who is 60, and her aunt, who is 67, went there when they were children.

“When he first got there, they were teaching him a whole lot. It was unbelievable. We were just amazed,” Ms. Hawkins said.

Andrea Verona’s son and daughter have been going to the nursery a year.

“I put them in day care so they can learn how to interact with other kids. My son is speaking more; my daughter comes home singing. They are learning. I am loving the day care. I feel very comfortable with my kids going to the day care,” Ms. Verona said. “Everything’s great.”

Lanatta Lyons checked out the day care before placing her granddaughter, 3, there. She went unannounced and watched.

“I noticed the caregivers were friendly and I like their educational background,” she said.

After enrolling her granddaughter a year ago, Ms. Lyons said, “Shawn’a is smarter. She knows her alphabet and she knows her colors. I could tell right off that she was learning at the pace I wanted her to learn in. They have already accomplished what I wanted them to accomplish with her.”

The teachers and director show concern for the children, take them on educational trips to the zoo and other places and are getting her granddaughter ready for school, Ms. Lyons said.

“The food is good. I like the location. I’ve never had a problem with attitude from the teachers and director. They always talk with concern,” she added. “I just like North Tyler Day Nursery in general.”

The nursery currently uses the Griffin annex, which has 13 classrooms, playgrounds and a cafeteria. Officials anticipate it may someday expand into the rest of the school buildings.

Upgrading the facility, the nursery installed emergency doors in the annex, funded with a community development block grant through the City of Tyler, and placed cameras and wireless Internet service throughout the building. The nursery has received donated computers and numerous other donations from groups and individuals.

Several staff members are participating in child development certification training provided by Champions for Children, funded in part by East Texas Workforce. A smaller grant through Champions and The University of Texas at Tyler funds training for some in how to use literature and develop children’s skills.

“We encourage our teachers to go beyond the minimum required training and get additional focused training for their particular age group (of children they work with),” Ms. Watson said.

The nursery has a staff of 14, including teachers, office staff, a janitor and cook. Several volunteers, including the Daughters of the King prayer group at Christ Episcopal Church, provide help.

Tuition, which is based on a sliding fee scale for people with a variety of income levels, covers breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack, with meals cooked on the premises emphasizing fresh fruits and vegetables.

The nursery serves 84 children year-round with a developmental curriculum developed by Mary Ann Gerrard, of Champions for Children, based on the developmental milestones that children normally achieve at different ages. It incorporates pre-literacy, pre-math and science as well as social skills.

“By the time the kids who have started here get to the preschool class, they are ready to learn letters, learn how to write their name and ready to learn numerals and they are ready for that pre-reading training at age 4,” Ms. Watson said. “In the preschool classroom, we use the same curriculum that Head Start uses.”

Children have at least 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon for play to keep them physically active and help reduce obesity, Ms. Watson said. Along with that, the children will visit a farmers market and tend an on-site garden to promote a healthy lifestyle.

The curriculum will include science, technology, engineering and math to get them ready to go back to school next fall, Ms. Watson said. The children will carry out projects, do research, keep a journal and have the opportunity to develop presentation skills by speaking in front of a group.

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