Good News for Old Imagination Station Site in Urbandale

An award-winning Florida Christian child-care center is opening in Urbandale this summer in the old on 86th Street.

Imagination Station in a flurry of controversy that continues still. Employees picketed the center's owner saying they hadn't been paid for weeks, the center closed and dozens of

What was bad news for Imagination and Education Station became good news for The Magellan Academy, a Florida-based Christian child care and private school business.

Ship-shape Management

Thomas and Lorrie Blitch, retired naval commanders, who've been operating the child-care centers for 16 years, had been looking for opportunities to expand the two centers they own in Jacksonville.

Magellan's Florida centers consistently have  been rated second and third in an annual survey of northeast Florida parents for Best Childcare Center and Best Private School, said Thomas Blitch.

Last year, a commercial real estate broker they had been working with in Phoenix who moved to Des Moines, called to tell the couple about the Imagination Station property.

The owner of the commercial building, Ladco Development, is suing Imagination Station owner Theresa Mulhern for more than $4,000 in back rent, according to court records. Furthermore Ladco has its own financial problems.

Blitch said that acquiring the site at a reasonable cost means that Magellan can keep child-care rates comparable to other centers' rates. Urbandale has five child-care centers, eight preschools, 31 registered child development homes and 37 day-care homes that are not registered, according to statistics kept by Child Care Resource and Referral of Central Iowa.

Blitch said he hopes to open for business by the third week in July. The business' sign has been up for about a month, but he said the space "needed some renovation and we needed to Magellan-ize it."

Magellan Distinctions

One of the hallmarks of Magellan centers is they are very clean, he said. The company's website notes that children always eat meals and snacks in the center cafeteria, not in their classrooms.

The center also has cameras in classrooms so parents can get online and watch their child at any time of day. There is no fee for this. Every center has a nurse on site.

"The Magellan Academy is unabashedly Christian." its website says. "Christian values and traditions are taught to the children. The Magellan Academy believes that to attempt to educate children without providing a moral compass is like setting a ship to sea without a rudder."

However, the academies are not affiliated with any denomination or church, and Blitch says "The Magellan Academy is not a theological institute." 

"Age–appropriate instruction includes being loving and caring neighbors to all, to love others as themselves, to know, honor and carry out The Ten Commandments, to conserve and protect the tremendous gift that God gave in the Earth, to know right from wrong and to seek righteousness, and to be honest, responsible and respectful," is how the web site describes the religious teachings.

Urbandale will be Magellan's fourth site. The company recently opened one in Greenfield, Ariz.

Blitch said Elizabeth Boyer, who's been hired as the Urbandale center's director, will be working out of the Urbandale center as soon as next week.

The company also soon will be accepting applications for childcare workers. People interested in applying for a job at Magellan, can email the company or stop by the center.