Bringing Barrington to Life: A Founder’s Story

In 2014, Jessie Hoffman developed a model for a school designed to better support children and families.

As a parent, Jessie knew firsthand how quickly daily life could pile up. Between packing meals, making sure the diaper bag is ready, and getting everyone out the door, mornings can feel chaotic to say the least. Evenings can bring a whole different set of logistics, with families balancing work, dinner, and extracurricular activities. Jessie felt that, with the right approach, a childcare setting could support families through daily rhythms and help simplify their routines. That idea helped shape several key aspects of Barrington School.  

Included in tuition, Barrington would provide essentials like diapers, wipes, bibs, blankets, and sunscreen. Enrichment classes like gymnastics, music, and yoga would also be brought in-house and included in the daily curriculum, so parents could spend more time with their kids in the evenings instead of rushing to dance lessons.

Jessie also wanted parents to have a place where ‘heat and serve’ meals weren’t the norm.

“The state requires breakfast to include milk, a grain, and a fruit or veggie,” she explained. “I wanted there to be a protein included in every meal; breakfast, lunch, and snack.”

Jessie felt the best way to get kids the healthy food they needed was to hire an in-house chef who would prepare fresh meals daily, including homemade purees for infants. The menu would use organic ingredients sourced from distributors like Whole Foods. And she wanted the menu to go beyond what kids might eat at home, helping to expand their palate and reduce picky eating in the long run.  

“There’s research that shows if you try something seven times, you develop a taste for it,” she shared. “If kids really aren’t interested, we encourage them to at least take a ‘no thank you bite’.”

Bringing Barrington to Life  

With the support of her family, this vision became a reality. In 2014, she opened the first Barrington School in Dublin, and it worked from day one. A Powell location followed a little later, and franchising soon became part of the plan. Today, Barrington has 12 locations, including five franchised.

Even as Barrington grew, Jessie kept quality and hands-on leadership at the center. She believed families wanted an owner who was present and involved, and that belief guided how the school expanded.

To keep quality strong across every location, each franchised school is required to have an owner on site. That same emphasis on consistency and care extends to the leadership within each school. Many of Barrington’s current directors have been with Jessie since the beginning, with some even starting as teachers. That experience allows them to further support their teams and uphold the school’s standards every day.  

While Barrington has grown, it hasn’t lost what started it all: presence, quality, and a real commitment to supporting children and families. We invite you to visit any of our daycares near you to meet our experienced staff and witness Jessie's original vision in action.  

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