Bluegrass Children’s Academy Director Becky Mathieu said she never could have imagined how successful the child care facility would become when she first accepted an offer to operate it in 2009.

The facility, located on the Bluegrass Community and Technical College campus on Rolling Hills Lane, currently has 35 children enrolled with another 45 waiting for a place to open.

BCA celebrated its staff Tuesday evening after recently being awarded four stars from the Kentucky All STARS program.

The program is Kentucky’s expanded five-star quality rating and improvement system serving all early-care and education programs — including childcare centers, Head Start and public preschool — that receive public funding.

The unified system is based on Kentucky’s Early Childhood Standards and research-based indicators of quality.

The rating takes into account several factors, including family and community engagement, classroom and instructional quality, staff qualifications, administrative and leadership practices and more.

“Every single week I’m trying to push the girls to do something better and to make us stronger,” Mathieu said. “It’s important to have quality childcare. Anyone can just provide childcare and babysit, but we are trying to teach, put curriculum in place.”

BCA began through an anonymous donor, who offered BCTC $250,000 to put a childcare facility on the campus. BCTC administrators contacted Mathieu, who was then working as a supervisor at a different facility in town.

Mathieu said the opportunity was a challenging one, and she grew just as much as BCA did after accepting the position.

“I had to go from being a supervisor to being a business owner, to being a boss,” she said. “I have grown tremendously through this process.”

Mathieu said the opportunity was a blessing, and being attached to BCTC has enabled BCA to realize exceptional cost savings which help Mathieu put more money into providing care and instruction to children.

“I don’t have to pay any overhead, no rent,” Mathieu said. “So I’m able to pay my staff to stay with me so much longer. What a blessing that is.”

BCA is staffed by eight employees. The facility operates from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

BCA offers weekly, daily and hourly rates to meet clients’ schedules