WATERVILLE -- Three supervisors with master's degrees, 12 lead teachers with bachelor's degrees in early-childhood development and nearly two dozen assistant teachers with either bachelor's or associate's degrees in the same discipline.

That is the educational background required of the staff that will operate the Educare Center -- a facility for early-childhood care and education -- that's scheduled to open in Waterville in September 2010.

And those teachers on a daily basis will have time reserved outside the classroom for planning and professional development, said Martha Naber, education-program coordinator at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield.

That combination -- a staff with a strong educational background and a commitment to professional growth -- is a key reason that Educare is billed as offering high-quality care and education for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers, Naber said.

"It means teachers, when in the classroom, are not stretched too thin and exhausted as a result," Naber said.

The structure and operations of the Educare Center, the first one to be built in New England, is a dynamic process that people such as Naber and others in the Greater Waterville Alliance for Early Care & Learning will be working on over the next two years.

Last week at the Blaine House in Augusta, First Lady Karen Baldacci announced that Waterville won over three other communities -- Bangor, Lewiston and Portland -- that originally applied to be Maine's Educare site and the $4 million offered by Doris Buffett, the sister of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, and the Ounce of Prevention Fund.

Local philanthropists Bill and Joan Alfond added $2 million, for a total of $6 million, to be applied toward the upfront costs of building the center, which will be located by the George J. Mitchell School -- a school that serves students in preschool to grade 3.

But a multi-million dollar building is not the reason Educare excites many child-care professionals and educators.

Their excitement has to do with the programming that takes place within its walls and the philosophy those programs are based on.

Fundamental to the Educare model is the scientific research that shows that most brain development occurs in the first three years of life.

This, then, is a vital time to provide the rich learning environment that hardwires children for success, Educare advocates argue.

Kathy Colfer of the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program -- one of several organizations involved with the Waterville Alliance -- said children from disadvantaged families are the focus of Educare.

"It is an intense program," she said. "It is really designed to break the cycle of poverty. We are really trying to get children to succeed in school."

Waterville School Superintendent Eric L. Haley has projected a $3 million annual operating budget for the facility -- all but $300,000 in revenue sources have been identified.

Colfer, KVCAP's director of child and family services, stressed that no local tax money is included in that budget. The funding, instead, will come from a combination of state and federal programs, including money now going to Head Start, she said.

Colfer said the Alliance is hoping to build an endowment on donations from various philanthropists and philanthropic foundations in Maine. The interest on that endowment would then be used to address the remaining funding gap.

"We are going to set it up," she said, "so it is self-funding without taxes."

The Alliance is using the Educare model as its blueprint in designing the Waterville center -- six Educare Centers currently are operating across the country. But Alliance members said Educare allows for some variation within its conceptual framework. At this point, Colfer said the Alliance expects to accommodate 166 students, most of them full-time, not including 18 from Woodford's Family Services, a school for autistic children. The center will be designed to accommodate up to 200.

Kennebec Valley Community College's early-childhood program also will have space in the building.

"We are going to be having a classroom, a resource room and an observation room built into Educare," Naber said, "to serve our students and families and staff."

Naber said the resource room will be used to offer classes and training for those inside and outside the center.

"For me, it is kind of offering this continuum of professional development, which we were doing and Educare requires," she said.

Also part of the Educare model is an emphasis on outreach to parents, including prenatal support. Colfer said the center will have four family-support workers, a program that KVCAP already has in place.

She said establishing a strong relationship with parents is vital to hardwiring their children for success in school.

"We recognize that parents are always their children's first teacher," she said, "and every teacher wants to do a good job. Sometimes they just don't have the right skills and resources to do it."

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com