Vince Ford Early Learning Center FAQs

Vince Ford Early Learning Center will serve children in 3-year-old kindergarten through second grade. The center will offer myriad services for students as well as parents, from parenting classes to early identification of needs associated with special services, to other wraparound resources. Like other early learning centers in South Carolina and in other parts of the country, the mission of Vince Ford Early Learning Center will be to ensure that students are prepared to begin the formative years of school. 

For at least 10 years, Richland One has been exploring ways to increase options and opportunities for our youngest learners, realizing that this leads to a higher likelihood of success later in school. We had been considering building centers in two areas of our district: 1) the Lower Richland area, and 2) the Broad River Road area. These two areas were of focus because of several factors, including the number of early childhood students in those areas and the number of facilities/classrooms that are available to serve the targeted age group. Because the district already owned property in the Lower Richland area, the first of two planned centers started there.  

The center was initially approved to serve children from birth to 4 years old. The age range change was approved by the Richland One Board of School Commissioners on January 23, 2024. There were two reasons for the change: 1) to allow flexibility in the age range because of the increase of new housing in the Lower Richland area, and 2) to ensure compliance with existing zoning for the site.

Construction started in November 2023, with a planned January 2025 completion date.

Construction was paused by the district because the anticipated permit was not issued. This move affords the district the ability to resolve the permitting matter in the timeliest manner possible.

There are three areas in which the district is incurring ongoing costs at this time. They are site/land stabilization, site inspections and site security. From January 2024 through May 2024, those costs have amounted to approximately $286,000.

While the district has spent over $800,000 on the facility since construction was paused, more than half a million dollars of that total was spent on building materials and other essential items that had already been ordered prior to the pause. The district was obligated to pay for these materials once they arrived following the construction pause. With this pause, ongoing costs related to the facility were inevitable but, importantly, these costs are not a penalty and, in many cases, they would have been incurred without the pause to construction. The district has not ordered new materials since the pause.

Once permitting concerns have been resolved, construction should resume to serve our youngest learners.