Fort Leavenworth breaks ground on Child Development Center

The Newcomb family, representing Child Development Center patrons, helped break ground for a new CDC during a ceremony March 20, 2025, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Maj. Christopher Newcomb, combat operations analyst at The Research and Analysis Center, his wife Hedei Newcomb and their 4-year-old son Cortland ceremoniously shoveled dirt with local military and community leaders, an elected official and Army Corps of Engineers and construction company representatives to celebrate the creation of the new center that will increase child care availability to Fort Leavenworth families.

Carole Hoffman, Child and Youth Services coordinator, said although the specific numbers for needed child care slots change every year, the Fort Leavenworth population always needs child care for ages newborn through elementary school.

“The need for high quality, developmentally appropriate care will always exist in our Fort Leavenworth community, and this new CDC will provide that for 6 weeks through 5 years old,” Hoffman said, noting that the new CDC will provide 50 more child care spaces for that demographic. “This increase in numbers should greatly reduce the waitlist wait time.”

The current Main and Osage CDC facilities offer full-day child care for 6 weeks through 5 years old, part-day preschool for 3-5 years old, before- and after-school care, and summer camps for kindergarten through fifth grade. Hoffman said Santa Fe CDC, which closed in March 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions on hourly care, has remained closed after the restrictions lifted because of staffing shortages, but should reopen by the end of the year.

“Both of our child care programs on Fort Leavenworth are nationally accredited programs and strive to provide high quality, developmentally appropriate programs for children,” Hoffman said. “The projected completion date for the new CDC is September 2027, and once opened it will also go through the accreditation process.”

In addition to offering increased child care slots, having the new CDC available at that time will allow repairs to be made to existing CDC facilities without losing child care availability.

During his groundbreaking ceremony remarks, Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth Commanding General Lt. Gen. Milford Beagle Jr. said the new CDC would open doors to better safety, security, supervision and memories.

He shared that when he was stationed at Fort Leavenworth from 2001-2003 for the Command and General Staff College and School of Advanced Military Studies, his family relied on the trustworthiness and professionalism of CDC staff members when he would drop off his then-2-year-old son at the facility.

“I’d go to class, my lovely bride, Pam, would go to work at the Federal Bureau of Prisons right outside the gates, and our older son would go to school at MacArthur. Any given day we weren’t worried about safety, security or the supervision, because they were great people and we had great facilities,” he said.

Not only did the Beagle family experience Kansas’ tornadic weather during that time, but they were also at Fort Leavenworth when terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

“We were here for 9-11 and were all separated, but we knew (the children) were in a safe location in good facilities, that we currently have, and we had good supervision because of the workforce that was there, and that truly meant a lot, and that meant that was something we did not have to worry about.”

Beagle said the groundbreaking ceremony signified improvements to the security and safety of the nation’s most precious resource. He said CDC professionals are in high demand, but are few, and that is a problem across the nation. He noted that the integrated technology in the new CDC will help make their jobs a little bit easier so they can perform their jobs even better.

“And as we have in the past, people will remember names like Ms. Watson, Ms. Wecas, and the rest of our CDC workers who work here now currently. Memories of quality safety, security and supervision established in our current facility will continue in our new facility,” Beagle said. “We recruit soldiers but we retain families, and that is always a key point to remember, and this is but one demonstration of how our senior leaders, our senior elected officials, they all put their hat in the ring to make sure that our families are secure, protected so our soldiers can focus on their mission every single day and not have to worry.”

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran also offered remarks during the groundbreaking ceremony.

“(It’s) great to be in the Fort Leavenworth community on a day in which we plan for the future, a day in which we actually do more than plan for the future, a day in which we build for the future.”

Moran said about three years ago, Congress restored earmarks, formally called congressionally directed spending, to set aside funds for projects.

“For those of us who are fiscally conservative, I should point out that if the money is not spent here, it’s spent someplace else, and we prefer that it be spent in Kansas, and we are delighted that it will be spent here at Fort Leavenworth,” Moran said of the $34 million being used to build the new CDC. “Now we are going to break ground, and that’s a wonderful day, and a more wonderful day will be when we cut a ribbon and we walk in the doors, and maybe even the better day is when we start seeing children who are being educated and cared for at this facility.”

Moran, co-chair of the Senate Army Caucus, said the group works to find ways to improve the quality of life for the nation’s military members and their families.

“We want to use the opportunity at every chance we get to make certain that those who serve us in (the) military, those who serve us in the Army, in particular, are cared for, their families are important, and what decisions that public policy makers in Washington, D.C., help us determine who’s going to serve and how long they are going to serve and whether they believe they’re being cared for and their families are fine in their military service.”

Following the remarks, the Newcomb family, Hoffman and other designees joined Beagle and Moran to officially break ground for the CDC project.

Detours are currently in place around the construction site, and Hancock Gate continues to be open for construction and neighborhood traffic.