Kathleen Todd had a dream and no one was going to stop her, not even the anti-growth city leaders in Howe of the 1980’s. Not only did she succeed when the odds were against her; she grew the operation and now owns one of the longest tenured businesses in Howe as The School Zone Academy celebrates 30 years in business today.
Todd, originally from upstate New York moved to Texas in the early 1980’s following her then husband who was in construction. Todd, was a pediatric nurse and couldn’t find adequate care for her children. Not wanting to place her kids in a bad situation, she decided to leave her nursing career and build a daycare center.
“It took five years to get resources and financing to get started and we started from the ground up.” said Todd.
Back in the 1980’s it wasn’t exactly easy to get a new business in Howe. According to Todd, the people running the city at the time were not in favor of new businessesand she was told by the city council that Howe didn’t need another daycare center because one had just went out of business due to the lack of customers. Todd would not accept no for an answer and kept pushing the council. They told her that she had to brick the entire four sides of the building.
“Then I found out that it was, ‘who you knew’ or ‘who you were’ in the city because the rules didn’t apply to everybody.” said Todd. “In fact, they built a metal building within a few feet of my property and it wasn’t brick and still isn’t brick and now I own it.”
Todd says that in 1985, a woman trying to open a business in Howe was nearly impossible. What makes her story even more improbable is that she did it all with only a dream.
“I had no money.” said Todd. “I went to Goodwill and bought a woman’s power suit and a
briefcase.”
With the Goodwill suit and briefcase, she went from bank to bank in North Texas trying to find someone who would finance her vision. Finally, she found a bank in McKinney called Texas American Bank.
“No local banks would touch it. I went to McKinney where they didn’t know me.” said Todd. “I wore that suit and acted like I knew what I was doing.” Armed with experience in working in childcare and a degree in early childcare development, Todd was able to secure the loan. She traded in her Pontiac Trans-Am for a school bus and the bus became
her personal vehicle along with the daycare transportation. Todd’s husband at the time who was in construction began to find materials that were leftover on other job-sites and saved a lot of money by piecing things together like the Johnny Cash song “One Piece At A Time.”
“When I told him five years before we opened the daycare, he started dragging stuff home.” said Todd. “Whatever they were going to throw in the dumpster came home. A lot of the supplies we got came because he was resourceful and new what he was doing. He’s my ex now, but I still respect the heck out of him for everything that he did.”
They began the construction of the building and even hired one of the family farm-hands from upstate New York named John Carr to come to Howe and help. A side note is that Carr never went back home and still resides in Howe.
On May 18, 1985, The School Zone Academy opened it’s doors. It wasn’t at all what Todd was expecting. Todd had done a marketing survey and it showed that they would have 80 kids. They actually opened with 26. “I was sick.” said Todd. “How am I going to pay all of these staff members?”
However, things changed quickly and four months later they were having to add on to the facilities because they were pulling from not just Howe, but Van Alstyne, Tom Bean, Dorchester and other surrounding areas.
Todd picked Howe because of the school district.
“I wanted to be in a town that cared about children.” said Todd. “I felt very early on that Howe was the perfect fit because kids were the priority. Howe was circled around their children.”
While owning The School Zone Academy, Todd had three more children, one of which, Haleen, is now the director of the school.
“I was delivering her and was actually on my cell phone calling the workers who were adding an addition on the building to tell them to get it done because I’m having a baby.” said Todd. “We built that addition because of Haleen and now she’s the director.”
Todd says that the best part now is that her grandchildren go there and she gets to be a part of their lives on a daily basis. She says that no grandmother could ever have it better than how she does.
“I never thought about being here at at 60.” said Todd. “I’ll be 60 in July. “Everything about our school, the farm, the greenhouse, the gardens, the bicycle trails, the gym, the dance studio, everything that we have now was in my head back in May of 1985. The building is now paid off and I’m able to put the money back into the business and everything is unfolding.”
Much has changed in the daycare business since 1985. Back then, the only people to answer to were Daycare Licensing and the Health Department. Now, Child Care Services, and the Federal Food Program have been put in place for standards. The big changes are having to have more staff due to ratios, educated staffs and a traceable food record.
It was a leap of faith by one strong woman who kicked down the doors of Howe. The School Zone Academy is now one of the longest standing businesses in Howe. Not bad for a city that said she’d fail.
