Ball State University is turning a former Muncie elementary school into a community early childhood center for children from birth to age five.  IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports.

Called the Mitchell Early Childhood and Family Center, Ball State says the building will be renovated beginning next month and will open in August.  It will be run by a collaboration between the school’s Child Study Center and the YMCA of Muncie’s Apple Tree Child Development Center.  Ball State says the two childcare centers will operate independently until August, and then work to combine services in the new building.

Ball State says enrollment at the new Mitchell childcare center is on a first-come, first-serve basis and financial assistance is available.  In Delaware County as a whole, the Indiana Youth Institute says childcare costs are the fourth highest in the state.

In a statement, university president Geoff Mearns says the new center is both an example of university and city collaboration and is giving “new life to a building once bound for demolition.”

After Muncie Community Schools voted to close three elementary schools in 2017, Ball State purchased two of the buildings – Sutton and Mitchell elementaries – in 2018 for a combined price of $435,000.