UK couple hops into child care market at Toad Hall

BRADENTON -- For more than 40 years, hundreds of Bradenton children have been at home at a cheerful yellow child care center next to Jessie P. Miller Elementary School.

It is where they made their first friends, ate lunch at kid-sized tables and got their first inklings the whole alphabet thing might be useful someday.

All this will likely continue for decades more, but under a different name. At the end of January, a British couple with a passion for child care and early childhood education purchased what amounted to a local preschool institution, Town & Country Child Development Center, and began operating it as Toad Hall Children's Center.

For the families who patronize the center -- some enrolling generations of children -- the ownership change means their children will learn more and have even more fun. It's something both the former owner, Shirley Stewart, and Toad Hall operators Paula and Nigel Smith are looking forward to.

"Taking over an existing center that has been here for 40 plus years is a big responsibility," said Paula Smith, a British citizen who lives part-time in St. Petersburg with husband, Nigel. "We need to make sure whatever we do, we involve the community, the families, and include the children in all the decision making we do here."

In recent weeks, the couple has been working on the changeover at the Toad Hall center. They bought the 3,400-square-foot center in January for $500,000 after looking at several others for sale in the St. Petersburg area. The couple owns Toad Hall Day Nursery in Rayleigh, U.K., just east of London. The Smiths built

that center 12 years ago and are now expanding their child-care venture to the place they previously visited for vacations.

"We decided to go for a bit of a challenge here," Paula Smith said.

The Bradenton center's history was a clincher for the Smiths. Stewart started Town & Country with help from her mother in the early 1970s after working as a daycare provider for nearly a decade. With about 50 children, ages infant through 5, the center has enjoyed steady attendance on a word-of-mouth basis.

Stewart is now retired and her daughter, Kelly Rae Schue, is leaving her leadership post at Toad Hall in April. Schue said the Smiths are the right people to carry the business forward. "We did a lot with children over the years and it's nice to pass it to people with the same passion," Schue said.

The Smiths are looking to grow Toad Hall, which can accommodate up to 147 children, and to make its services more flexible. At their U.K. location, the couple employs about 30 staff members caring for about 250 children. Most of those kids spend only a few hours a day or perhaps part of the week at that center because British working parents have been encouraged to work more flexible or home-based schedules.

Paula Smith said most of the children at the Bradenton Toad Hall attend full days five days a week. She said the center at 4004 Eighth Ave. Drive W., could see more partial-day preschoolers if parents know that's an option.

Day-to-day operations will see some changes. The Smiths have tentative plans to open a kitchen at Toad Hall to provide lunches and are redesigning outdoor areas to include rubberized play surfaces, vegetable gardens and a covered, outdoor classroom space. They will also increase security by installing a perimeter fence.

Other changes could include remodeling Toad Hall's interior for better traffic flow. It is currently divided into six areas that segregate children by age.

Nigel Smith, who is a builder by trade, is spearheading the work. Projects will be phased in with the couple's travel schedule, which takes them between Florida and Great Britain every few weeks.

"When you go away for three or four weeks and come back, you can see things through fresh eyes," he said.

The Smiths will operate Toad Hall in a competitive day care and preschool market. Sharon Oakes, chief operating officer of the Early Learning Coalition of Manatee County, said 233 licensed operators are in business in the county.

Within that group, Toad Hall has won its share of fans.

"As a working parent, I trust this center," said Jill McGarry, a mother with two children at Toad Hall. "I've been so pleased with their mental, physical and emotional development here."

The Smiths are maintaining continuity at Toad Hall. They have retained the center's staff of eight and named longtime Town & Country employee Andrea Rutledge as the center's director.

Toad Hall can be contacted at 941-746-3951.

Matt M. Johnson, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7027, or on Twitter @MattAtBradenton.

This story was originally published March 3, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "UK couple hops into child care market at Toad Hall ."