For more than one hundred kids and their parents, Monday marked the start of the new school year at Brighten Academy preschool in Clovis.
"She was really excited. She got up all by herself and got ready. She was ready to go when I got home from work this morning," parent Danielle Strong said.
It also marked the beginning of a new school year with a new building. Business owner Kristine Peterson and her husband have been working around the clock to get their new building ready in time for the start of school.
"Today is the first day of opening our expansion. We were very fortunate to be able to expand our current preschool. We've been open for 3 1/2 years," Peterson said.
Peterson and her husband initially opened the building as Brighten Academy preschool, but there grew to be such a demand that they opened a second building to teach students.
"Last year's waiting list between August and may got up to about 400 people so this building was built to accommodate that need," Kristine Peterson said.
Crews have been busy all summer long constructing the new 4,100 square foot building, which is identical to the existing facility.
The new construction also meant that Peterson had more teachers to hire to fill everything from infant to private kindergarten classrooms.
For preschool parents, the expansion project is appealing.
"When we were considering this place they had started the construction and it looked really nice the building's really new. It's a nice facility. It's one of the factors that made us want to come here," Strong said.
With construction crews putting the finishing touches around the campus, Peterson says he feels fortunate to be kicking off the new school year in a big way.
