by Cheryl D. Howard, Contributing Writer
There are very few people or institutions in whom or that we would fully entrust with our children. This is especially true during this time of the pandemic. Jozalynne Byrd-Shakur is one with whom I would trust with my children. Many other families would agree who have children enrolled at Creating Characters Preschool Academy located in Natomas where Byrd-Shakur is the Founder and Executive Director.
During a national pandemic, those who still work and need childcare must be able to find a place for their young children to be. It is especially hard during this time. In 2012 Byrd-Shakur started a daycare in her home. She has always had a love and affinity for children. She personally finds them witty, funny, and entertaining. As I asked her to tell me who she was, Byrd-Shakur stated: “I am a child of God and can humbly and proudly give him thanks for designing me to be warm hearted, authentic and goal driven woman who always tries to find the light in every person and circumstance,” she answered.
After high school she attended higher education and earned a degree in early childhood education. She then began to work for Fortune 500 companies. While only making $10.00 an hour for million-dollar companies she came to realize she was helping them to build their legacies. So, Byrd-Shakur knew it was time to start her own business.
She recalls a very disheartening and discouraging time when her child was ill, and her boss was very unsympathetic and attempted to force her to choose her job over her son. Around the same time, she recalls one of her family members called her and was distraught about childcare woes.
“Those two incidents kind of pushed me into an uncomfortable space and being real with myself in saying that you need to pursue your own dreams (she thought). I decided to build my own legacy for my two boys (Jah’Morris, 13 and Jah’Sani 6),” she said.
Byrd-Shakur ran her in-home daycare for approximately 8 1/2 years. In 2020, with the loving support of her husband, Asani Shakur and her parents, she brought the dream of expanding her preschool to a commercial building to fruition. In the early part of 2020 during the onset of the pandemic, Byrd-Shakur was negotiating for the commercial building. With
much prayer and drive she signed a lease in August of 2020 and she recently opened a 3400 square foot brand new preschool for Creating Characters Academy on January 4th, 2021!
According to the school’s mission statement on its website, Creating Characters is, “A place to embrace your true character! With our holistic early childhood education philosophy, we understand that all children have unique personalities, needs and interests that will be met in many different ways and will develop at their own pace.”
Byrd-Shakur is a true visionary. She sees beyond just a preschool for children. “We thrive to eventually become a community center for all of our enrolled families. A place where workshops are held to help our families grow in multiple areas such as financial literacy, homeownership, parenting guidance, health and nutrition, effective communication, etc.”, she said.
Byrd-Shakur gave it much thought when she came up with the name of the school. She believes with a whole heart that we should instill positive characteristics to adolescents. We should take the time to implement characteristics such as love, humility, self-control, perseverance, confidence and compassion. It is important to begin to impart such characteristics now while they are young and impressionable.
It has been somewhat of a daunting task to operate the preschool because she understands the risks that are involved with COVID-19. But Byrd-Shakur, and her staff have implemented extreme caution with a COVID-19 protocol. Each morning they conduct a wellness visual check on every child and a couple of times throughout today. They do frequent hand washing, and frequent sanitation of the classrooms, equipment and toys.
Parents are only allowed in lobby with masks and shoes are not allowed inside the center. If a child displays any symptoms of a runny nose or a fever 99 degrees or above, the child is sent home or not allowed to attend until they have recovered. It is mandatory for the staff and the children to wear masks throughout the day. However, she stated that it is somewhat difficult to get a four-year-old to keep their mask on. “They would remove the mask to sneeze,” she laughed.
Byrd-Shakur is incredibly grateful and thankful that there have been absolutely no cases of COVID-19 with any of the staff, the children or their families since she has opened her doors. Byrd-Shakur is licensed for 45 kids but only 14 are enrolled now. Slowly, but surely, the kids are coming in. Jozalynne Byrd-Shakur is confident that as the pandemic dissipates, she will have a full house, full of happy, healthy, and educated children.
Creating Characters Preschool Academy is currently accepting applications and they do accept the Child Action and participants of Stage One County Childcare subsidy programs. For information about enrollment, you can call the school at (916) 710-4037 or visit the website at www.creatingcharactersacademy.com
