New Horizon Academy was founded in Brooklyn Center 55 years ago — and after expanding to more than 100 childcare centers across five states, the family-owned company is reinvesting in the city where it all started with a new flagship school.

Located at 7100 Brooklyn Blvd., the former Electrus Credit Union has been renovated to accommodate up to 144 children across nine classrooms and a variety of outdoor play spaces. New Horizon staff and students moved to the building in late July, leaving behind the Humboldt Avenue strip mall where the school operated for decades.

“The old building served us really well for many, many years … but it just got to a point where we were ready for a new space, a bigger space,” District Manager Kami Thompson said. “Our new location was built with the intention of being state of the art.”

Thompson noted many features of the new Brooklyn Center location have proven successful at other New Horizon schools, including a sensory discovery room filled with toys that squish, light up or produce soothing sounds.

“We’ll take a couple children in there so they can just explore all the different senses and see what meets that need for them,” Thompson said. “Usually they’re able to go back into a learning environment and retain what they’re learning a lot better, because they’re at a more regulated place when they do that.”

The new building is nearly double the size of New Horizon’s former Brooklyn Center location, with 13,500 square-feet of space spread across three floors. A muscle room, essentially an indoor playground, occupies the building’s basement. It offers miniature basketball hoops and other activities that can be enjoyed when the weather is too hot or cold to play outside.

An outdoor classroom and multiple playgrounds surround the building itself. Each playground is designed for a specific age group, from infancy to five years old.

“It’s a really big deal for the children to have more places to explore, and the additional classrooms are nice for us to be able to take care of more families,” Thompson said. “One of the biggest things that has been fun to hear from the families is just that they feel like this was a space that was created for them, that represents them, their families and their children, and also gives them a lot of the equipment and toys for them to be able to explore.”

The addition of a break room and a larger kitchen are examples of how the new space will benefit staff as well as students.

“We’re coming into a beautiful, brand-new building with incredibly dedicated teachers who’ve been with us for a really long time,” Thompson said. “To be able to provide them with a space that gives them the best of the best to be able to work with the children … It is really important for us to be able to do that for them.”

New Horizon Academy hosted a public open house at the new flagship location Aug. 1, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony coming up on Aug. 11.

“This flagship school holds a special place in our hearts, because it represents the beginning of our company, which has since grown to include more than 3,000 employees and an extended family of those who have entrusted us with multiple generations of their children,” New Horizon Academy CEO Chad Dunkley said. “This school is both a tribute to where we started and a reflection of where childcare and early education are going. Every generation deserves the opportunity to give children the strongest possible start in life.”

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