CASE STUDY:
Louisa County Public Schools’ Little Lions Learning Lab
Little Lions Learning Lab1 is an early childhood center operated by the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Office of Louisa County Public Schools (LCPS). Created in response to a difficult recruiting environment for teachers and shrinking interest in the field of education among students, the early childhood program provides LCPS staff with access to high-quality child care and serves as a learning space for students who want to explore a career in education.
The program is specifically designed to meet the child care needs of school division staff and is open from 7 am to 5 pm on the days teachers are contracted to work2. Spaces at the center are in high demand, and LCPS recently expanded the program to serve 30 three- and four-year-old children with plans to serve additional children in the 2027-2028 school year. Staff pay $400 per month and an additional $200 annual fee for instructional materials. The tuition is not directly subsidized by Louisa County taxpayers, but LCPS is able to keep costs down by leveraging free repurposed space near the high school and by utilizing administrative staff to support program operations.
Under the direction of trained and licensed lead teachers and instructional assistants, students at Louisa County High School support the day-to-day operations of the early childhood program, helping staff implement the curriculum and learning activities.
Little Lions Learning Lab is an example of how necessity can be the mother of an early childhood invention. It demonstrates how an employer-sponsored early childhood program can serve as an effective recruitment and retention tool for staff and how a high-school CTE program can inspire the next generation of teachers by starting with the division’s youngest students.
How it started
Recruiting teachers is a challenge for every Virginia school division. Historically, LCPS administrators would attend teacher job fairs up and down the east coast as the primary way of finding and hiring teaching staff. Around 2017, it became clear that these job fairs, which in years prior had attracted a large number of potential candidates, were declining significantly in attendance. With the pool of candidates shrinking, LCPS leadership needed to look for new strategies to set them apart as an employer.
At the same time, the high school Family and Consumer Science teacher elevated her concern about low enrollment in the Teachers of Tomorrow program. Early childhood education was a feeder course into the program, and students taking the class expressed disappointment that they could not work directly with children as part of the curriculum. LCPS administrative staff felt that the lack of real-world experience was limiting student engagement in the course and hurting enrollment in an important CTE track at the high school.
Finally, the CTE Director was personally struggling with child care after the birth of the family’s third child. His wife, who was a teacher, had to leave her position because they were unable to find affordable child care. Like many families, it made more sense financially for her to stay home. This experience made the CTE Director and his wife strong advocates for the on-site child care center.
These three issues created the “perfect storm” that gave birth to the concept of the Little Lions Learning Lab. At a meeting to address the teacher recruitment issue, the CTE director suggested to leadership that the division “do something wild.” That wild idea was the Little Lions Learning Lab, which was pitched as a way to attract high-quality teachers, provide on-site child care to staff, and inspire students to become future educators.
The immediate response was, “let’s dive into this,” and the process of creating the Little Lions Learning Lab began.
The collaboration that made it work
With the “wild idea” of the Little Lions Learning Lab established, a team of individuals from both inside and outside LCPS set out to get the center up and running.
An innovation like Lion Lions cannot become a reality without the full support of division leadership. Dr. J. Douglas Straley II, Superintendent of Louisa County Public Schools, was the center’s primary champion, allocating the necessary resources to create the center and serving as the connection between LCPS and the School Board, the Board of Supervisors, and the community. He had the critical role of making sure that stakeholders understood and approved of Little Lions by making the case for its value to teachers, students, and the broader community. Superintendent Straley also supported the CTE Director, who was new to the position at the time. Dr. Straley helped with the initial roll out of the idea to school staff, suggesting that the CTE Director field surveys to gather staff input and conduct mini town hall meetings with teachers to pitch the idea and seek input.
Dr. Mike Pelloni, Assistant Superintendent for Operations, was also essential to the success of the project. Dr. Pelloni, a former elementary school principal and teacher, oversaw teacher recruiting for LCPS. Given his role and experience, Dr. Pelloni was able to think about Little Lions from a teacher recruitment perspective and use his experience in elementary education to help with the design of the learning space.
The driving force behind the work was Mr. Kenneth Bouwens, Director of Career and Technical Education at LCPS. From initially designing the layout of Little Lions to putting furniture together as the project neared completion, he led every aspect of the work. In addition to garnering buy-in for the project from teaching staff, he managed the contractors, procured equipment and instructional materials, created the employee handbook, selected the curriculum, and designed the daily schedule. He continues to lead the operations of the center today.
A critical external partner was Dr. Reese Wilson, Associate Professor of Early, Elementary, and Reading Education at James Madison University (JMU). Using a portion of a $50,000 High School Innovative Programs grant from the Virginia Department of Education, LCPS was able to partner with Dr. Wilson at JMU during the planning stage of the project. JMU hosts a Professor in Residence program that provides academic support to Virginia middle and high schools. Dr. Wilson ran a learning lab like Little Lions at JMU that was staffed by university students and was perfectly suited to support the effort. Dr. Wilson spent one day per week at LCPS for an entire year and supported numerous aspects of the project’s design including curriculum, pricing for parents, building design, and the classroom learning environment.
This collaboration brought together the leadership, experience, and early childhood expertise to make the idea of Little Lions come to life.
What was achieved
Little Lions is an incredible success story. From its inception, LCPS has had four goals for the center:
- Act as a selling point in the division’s effort to attract and retain high-quality teachers,
- Support LCPS staff through onsite child care,
- Inspire students to become future educators, and
- Provide high quality care and developmentally appropriate education.
Little Lions is achieving each of these goals.
Attracting and retaining high-quality teachers: Since opening Little Lions, LCSP has experienced no staff vacancies. Recent hires noted that the on-site child care addressed a primary concern—“Where would I find child care?—when considering a teaching job with the division. Staff who utilize Little Lions hold the program in high regard, with 100 percent rating their satisfaction at an eight or above on a 10-point scale, and 80 percent rating it a perfect 10.
Child care support for staff: Little Lions provides on-site child care for 30 children. Demand consistently exceeds capacity, with enrollment requests from LCPS staff averaging twice the number of available slots in recent years. In response to this sustained need, the new CTE facility being constructed by LCPS has been designed to include space for Little Lions to expand enrollment by 10 additional children beginning in the 2027–2028 school year.
Inspiring future educators: Since the opening of Little Lions, student enrollment in the Teachers of Tomorrow program has increased from an average of 8 students to 20. High-school students are also enrolling at a much higher level in courses focused on early education and teaching. In 2017, a total of 70 students were enrolled in these types of courses at LCHS. Because of the opportunity to engage in hands-on learning at Little Lions, there are now more than 150 students enrolled. Increased enrollment in early education and teaching courses has translated into a large increase in students graduating from the high school who go into either a four-year program in education or LCPS’s Instructional Assistant Teacher Pipeline, the division’s “grow your own workforce” development track.
High-quality care and education: Little Lions has all the characteristics of a high-quality early childhood program. The center employs credentialed and well-trained teachers; implements an evidence-based curriculum and literacy practices; and participates in VQB5, a state program designed to measure and improve quality in early learning classrooms. The center has a strong focus on social and emotional growth and emphasizes emotional regulation as a key to success in school. Social-emotional learning is intentionally supported through Responsive Classroom practices, mindfulness, and collaborative problem-solving.
Barriers
Even with its success, the center faces ongoing challenges, including:
Meeting the demand
Little Lions has more demand from LCPS staff than the number of available slots. Even as LCPS has increased the center’s capacity, the need for additional slots continues to outpace the expansion. Teachers receive priority for slots over other staff members and are accepted into the program on a “first come, first served” basis. Consideration is given for the age distribution of children within the center when accepting children into the program. Some teachers and staff who apply do not receive a slot and are put on a waiting list. Given the tight-knit community, only being able to serve part of the workforce is stressful for both parents who need to find another child care solution and Little Lions leadership who must deliver the bad news that the center could not accept a child.
Staffing a long program day
Unlike other early childhood programs, Little Lions does not have a problem finding and retaining high-quality early childhood educators. Instead, the primary staffing challenge involves ensuring that the center maintains its 1-to-10 adult-to-child ratio over a 10-hour program day. Within the school division, the expectation among staff is that they work seven to eight hours per day. Understanding that there aren’t a lot of people willing to work a two- or three-hour day, staffing at Little Lions requires a lot of creativity and balancing to ensure the ratio is maintained throughout the program day.
“How goes the center, so goes the LCPS staff”
Everyone who utilizes Little Lions is an employee of LCPS, and there are challenges associated with having all the parents of children in a child care program working for the same employer. Decisions about the children in the center affect LCPS’s ability to operate effectively. For example, when a child is turned away from attending the program for a day because he or she is sick, that usually means a teacher at LCPS will also miss work. When a sickness runs through the center, multiple teachers will be out at the same time. This would not be as much of an issue if LCPS teachers used different child care providers, so this “how goes the center, so goes the staff” is a challenge for the division.
Lessons for other communities
The Little Lions Learning Lab offers several lessons for other school divisions and employers. These include:
What’s next?
LCPS is building a new 56,000 square foot CTE center that will allow the division to expand its CTE offerings and increase the capacity of Little Lions. Scheduled for completion in 2027, the new center will provide space for two early childhood classrooms and allow Little Lions to expand to serve an additional 10 children. LCPS is excited about the potential that the new center holds, allowing for more experiential learning opportunities for children attending Little Lions.
1 The Learning Lab is named after the Lousia County High School mascot—the lion. The children at the lab are the “littlest” students in the school division, known as “Little Lions.”
2 The 7 am to 5 pm schedule means that the center is open one hour before teachers contracted start time for school and 1.5 to 2 hours after the end of the school day. This schedule ensures teachers can attend after-school meetings or professional development and not be late to pick up their child.