By Sam Gilkey
For the News-Gazette

“It was like a war zone–a mini Iraq.”

That was Sheila Persaud’s assessment of the building at the corner of 10th Street and Illinois Avenue in St. Cloud when she opened the doors last September.

The Persaud family from Toronto purchased the building in 1991 after St. Luke-St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, which had occupied it for 60 years, moved to a new location on Canoe Creek Road.

“We operated it as a day care and preschool center until 2005 when we sold it,” Sheila said. “Then we bought it back in 2008.”

But with no one using the structure, it quickly deteriorated.

“The outside was overgrown with grass and weeds,” she said. “All of the air conditioners were broken and the copper had been stolen. Every window was blown out. The kitchen equipment had been stolen.”

However, she believed the potential was there for a school and care center once more and work on Kids Kastle was started.

“The first thing I did was to secure the doors and windows,” she recalled. “It took us two months to clean the mess out.”

But nine months later, the transformation, inside and out, is impressive.

“Getting the financing has been the most difficult part of the project. We had to get a personal loan and a mortgage on my house in Canada. The city, however, has been so good to work with. We got a Community Development Grant of $20,000 to clean the outside, replace windows and doors and do some other repairs.”

By the time the business opens in early August, Persaud said the repairs, renovations and installation of equipment will run upward of $300,000.

Starting with a staff of eight, she anticipants adding personnel as enrollment grows.

“We will be able to take infants to 4-year-olds in our preschool program,” Lead Teacher Darlene Samples said. “That’s when they learn the most. We will use a curriculum approved by the state that prepares children for kindergarten. It includes math, science and social development. We will also have an after school program for children through 14-years. They will be able to finish their homework, have other age appropriate activities and go on special outings.”

Looking around the old church building, Persaud pointed out that each classroom will have a bathroom and an exit to the outside.

“The kitchen is brand new,” she said. “We will serve hot meals each day. The floors had to be repaired and ramps and fire doors put in. But the exterior was perfect and in good shape. You can’t get a nail through some of the wood.”

“And we have a fully equipped indoor playground in addition to the outside playground and pavilion.”

Persaud got interested in preschool programs when she was a teacher in Toronto.

“When my first grandchild was about to enter preschool I went to a center and gave the owner some suggestions,” she said. “When the owner decided to sell, I purchased it and ran it for two years. On a vacation in Florida we saw an ad that the church building was for sale and bought it and turned it into a school.”

One of Sheila’s sons, Michael, worked with his mother while he went to the University of Central Florida.

Now an English teacher at St. Cloud High School, Michael said with a laugh, “Some of the kids whose diapers I used to change I am teaching and they are starting to graduate.”

Enrollment fees and tuition at Kids Kastle will vary with age, but average $115 a week. The phone number of the business is 407-892-5000.