Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Child Center Groundbreaking Takes Place : Education: The $1.5-million project will be the first of its kind in the Santa Clarita Valley. It will accommodate more than 75 children.

Ground was broken Monday for the Santa Clarita Valley’s first child development center.

The $1.5-million project at College of the Canyons will house a variety of early childhood programs.

For the past 12 years, the program at the college has been spread throughout the campus. Teachers have had to use carts to carry their notes and texts across campus, said center director Joan Waller. Currently, the program is divided between two portable classrooms on the Valencia campus and another space in Canyon Country.

“It will be nice to be reunited on campus and to have it all in one place,” Waller said.

The proposed 9,000-square-foot facility, which has been in the planning stages since 1989, will include lecture rooms, offices, classrooms for the children and observation rooms. It will accommodate more than 75 children.

More than 400 students take classes toward associates’ degrees to become preschool teachers or to go on to bachelor’s degrees and careers in early childhood education. The program also provides child care to 160 families, about a third of them low-income.

“We have tripled the number of students from when we started and more people show up than we have chairs (for) these days,” Waller said.

College Supt. Dianne Van Hook said the child development center, which is being funded by the state, is the start of a seven-year capital campaign that includes a library, a fine arts building, physical education facilities, science labs, a theater and roads. Funding for the projects, which are estimated to cost between $50 and $70 million, is uncertain, Van Hook said.