March 26. By Dave Yochum. The search to replace Libby Johnston, the former executive director of the Davidson-Cornelius Child Development Center, is over. Anna Washington, most recently executive director of the Boys & Girls Club in Statesville, will replace her.
Meanwhile, Ruth Schultes-Huth is joining the DCCDC as the new operations director. The two will lead expansion plans to meet a growing need for high-quality, full-time early child care and education.
WASHINGTON
Washington has a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as well as a bachelor’s degree in Criminology and Sociology from Johnson C. Smith University.
In a press release, the DCCDC board said her first goal is to successfully lead a capital campaign to expand and renovate the center to serve more children.
Schultes-Huth has been director of four diverse early child education and care centers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey during the past 14 years. A 20-year veteran of the Montessori School system, she has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Moravian College.
Former Executive Director Johnston, who ran the center for the past five years, stepped down in February. Sources say she will launch the new child development center at Lake Forest Church in Huntersville this fall.
Former Cornelius Mayor Chuck Travis said Johnston’s “passion and dedication to providing the best child development in our community will be missed.”
The school was founded in 1969 in response to a fire that claimed the lives of three children whose mother had no access to child care—she left them at home while she worked outside the home to support them.
In response to this tragedy, citizens set about to address the need for safe, affordable child care that would serve families of all income levels and backgrounds. Since then, the DCCDC has been a galvanizing force, bringing together members of our community from all races and economic backgrounds.
With a budget of around $620,000 (according to the non-profit’s tax filings), the facility is the only center in the North Mecklenburg area that offers 5-star, full-time, affordable early education and child care with scholarship support for children ages 6 weeks to pre-K.
About half the children receive sliding-scale scholarship support, ranging from 35 percent to 75 percent of the total tuition cost.
