Gainesville-based preschool O2B Kids held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday for its new location at 2810 W. Lester Road. The new location will officially open Jan. 5. 

“Birth through 5 is the most important five years in anybody’s educational life,” O2B Kids co-founder and CEO Andy Sherrard said. “The brain that you take to kindergarten — it’s 85 to 95% wired when you enter kindergarten, so understanding not just the cognitive development, but the social, emotional development of a child is so important.” 

The new location features several classrooms, playgrounds and an indoor play village with a dress-up room, market and more. O2B Kids uses its own fully-customizable online curriculum, Funnydaffer, to teach children to label, understand, question and succeed in the world, according to the website. 

Mayor Bryan Nelson, who cut the ribbon at the ceremony, said northwest Apopka was the best location for the new preschool due to the abundant growth in the region. 

“We’ve got two or three schools here that are ‘A’ schools that they feed right in from what you will teach them here, right into Wolf Lake Elementary [and] Middle and also Kelly Park,” Nelson said. “This transition coming from here right on over to those other schools will be something that will draw more people here to our Apopka community.” 

Shannon Hart, who serves as the Apopka location’s facility director, said she started working at O2B Kids’ Altamonte location after dropping her kids off at an O2B-hosted birthday party in Oviedo. 

“Back in 2008, when they opened the Altamonte location, I was one of the first parents to sign my kids up, and when I would drop them off every day, it just seemed like a really fun place to be,” Hart said. “The culture and the mission really resonated with me, so I made the decision to start working there as well, and I’ve been able to learn and grow with my kids, which has been a really beautiful thing for me personally.” 

Hart, an Apopka resident, spent nine years at the Altamonte location before transitioning to the new Apopka preschool. She said over 75% of the Apopka location’s staff is also transitioning from Altamonte. 

“I really honestly feel that our goal is to kind of make the parents the hero of their story and work with them to make sure that we’re able to be their tribe and help their kids get prepared for kindergarten — and not just the academic side, but we want to teach them the life skills,” Hart said. 

Hart said her decision to work for O2B was one of the best career choices she has ever made. 

“It’s really nice to be able to feel like I’m making a difference for kids, especially early on, especially with the state of the world and different pandemics or things that are going on,” Hart said. “We know that they’re going to be safe and loved here and that we can make a difference for them.”