Corporate History and Support
The LSP concept was officially formed in 2002 with the formation of Little Sunshine's Playhouse and Preschool Inc, a preschool operation based in Springfield, Missouri. However, LSP was being formed in philosophy and principal long before. Rochette Harrington Dahler is the founder and CEO of the LSP concept and affiliated companies. Her introduction into the childcare industry began in 1998 at her first experience in the field after high school graduation. Over the following three years her in-home childcare business grew and evolved into a passion and a dream for making a change in the educational childcare industry. After much rejection and challenge with the upstart financing, that dream came true on June 12th, 2002 at the grand opening of the first LSP School. This school exceeded all expectations and was slated for expansion within one year.
Since then, LSP has grown from a true grass roots business to a well developed franchise concept and system. Rochette and her husband Matt (pictured above) supervise and oversee all aspects of business within the LSP organizations. They provide leadership, guidance, and focus to Corporate staff, franchisees, and School Directors in order to grow the LSP concept to be known as the leading innovator in early childhood education.
Our Staff
Nicole Carr-Corporate Executive
"Hello, my name is Nicole Carr and I am the Corporate Executive of Little Sunshine's Playhouse and Preschools. I began working for LSP as administrative support in July 2008, while wrapping up my Bachelor's Degree at Missouri State University. The LSP story and overall concept was truly inspirational to me and I knew I wanted to be long-term player in this wonderful company. With that goal in mind, I provided any and all support I could and grew my involvement with LSP. Then, in June 2009, shortly after graduating with my BA in Business (emphasis in Marketing and Management), I was promoted to the title of Corporate Executive.
My role as Corporate Executive includes wearing a variety of hats each day, which is part of what makes my job so fulfilling. Some of my most common tasks include: providing daily operational support and guidance to our Franchisees and School Managers (with management, administrative, educational and program-specific tasks), ensuring school compliance with the LSP Operations Manual, conducting Quality Assurance Reviews (spending time on-site at schools to assess quality and facilitate any necessary improvements), assisting with and tending to disputes or formal concerns, managing all correspondence with staff and families from Corporate Office, conducting hiring, training and providing supervision of all Franchisees, School Managers and Corporate Office staff, running weekly training conferences with Rochette Dahler (owner and founder of LSP) and all LSP Directors, maintaining and making improvements to the LSP website and all Corporately-ran social media websites, handling marketing campaigns for each school, working with LSP vendors and suppliers, conducting competitive and industry specific research in search for unique ways to add benefit to our program and traveling on-site to new school openings to facilitate the initial process and help build brand awareness of the new program. My ultimate goal at the end of each and every day is and always will be to achieve 100% family and staff satisfaction at all of our schools.
On a more personal level, I am very family-oriented and love spending time with my husband, parents, siblings and extended family! I have been married since June 2008 to my amazing husband, Andy, and we will be welcoming our first children (twins) into the world in Spring 2012. We couldn't be more excited as first-time parents and look forward to showering our babies with all of the love and devotion in our hearts!"
Julie Hayes-Corp. Support Professional
"My name is Julie Hayes and I work alongside Nicole Carr at the Little Sunshine's Corporate Office. My career at LSP began in August 2002 at the Springfield I location when I was hired as an Assistant Teacher. Shortly after, I took the Lead Teacher position in the Pre-K room. I thoroughly enjoyed that classroom for three years before I was promoted to Assistant Director in August 2005. As Assistant Director, I started learning a lot more about the business aspect of the school, and it was very interesting to me! It was also really great to get to know all of the parents and children at my school and feel connected with them.
In May 2010, I was offered my position at the Corporate Office. Although I was very sad to leave the school, I had to take this wonderful opportunity! I am in touch with all of our Directors on a daily basis and I feel my job is still very rewarding. Some of my job duties are: ordering all supplies and food for the Corporately owned schools, menu planning, Quickbooks support for Franchisees and School Managers, entering bills and credit card charges and basically just trying to help any of our Franchisees and School Managers with anything they need. I am more than pleased with the opportunities I have had with this company and I am eager to see what the future holds for LSP!
On a personal level, I have been married to my wonderful husband, Michael, since September 2002. We enjoy watching St. Louis Cardinals and Springfield Cardinals baseball and just spending time with our family. In November 2004, we welcomed our first child, London, into the world and in November 2009, our second child, Connor, was born! Those two boys are the light of our lives and I can't imagine our life any other way!"