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The doors at the Watch Me Grow Child Development Center in Clarksburg have been open for a year now.

When the early childhood education program for infants to preschoolers opened , several goals were set for the center. One was to have all 10 classrooms open — within a few weeks, the 10th room will open. Another was to give money to the center's parent company, the Gaithersburg-based nonprofit Family Services Inc.

The million-dollar operation has not yet turned a profit to donate to the nonprofit, said Kylie McCleaf, Family Services Inc., associate director, but she hopes it will do so soon.

"We spend a great deal of our money on advertising, trying to get our name out there," she said. "We're kind of in a hidden area."

Paying a staff of 23 and operating the building costs about $1 million a year, McCleaf said. Parents pay from $1,320 a month for infants to $870 a month for 4-year-olds to attend. The children are at the center on Center Drive five days a week for at least six hours a day.

Teachers use a creative curriculum that stresses all aspects of development — language, physical, cognitive, social and emotional, educational director Nicole Queen said.

Family Services spokeswoman Wendy Enderson said the organization has not decided how funds from Watch Me Grow will be split among the other services the nonprofit offers.

The program started a year ago with seven children and enrollment has ballooned to 107, Queen said. Parents realize the preschool years are the most important in a child's development, she said, and the school's creative curriculum helps children learn through associations and interaction.

"It works for the children from six weeks until they're ready for school," Queen said.

The child development center is one of several programs Family Services offers, McCleaf said. The nonprofit, started in 1908, also has behavioral health, housing, mentoring and health screening programs.

"We pretty much do it all in the community," McCleaf said. "Watch Me Grow is a program that can feed money into all of the other programs we run."

When Andrew Kelson enrolled his son more than seven months ago, he had no idea the center would support other community-based programs.

Kelson of Clarksburg was excited to learn May 26 that, in addition to teaching his 15-month-old son all he needs to know before going to kindergarten, the center will support a nonprofit.

"That's outstanding that they do that," Kelson said. "That makes me like the center even more because I know that my money is not only helping my son, but it's helping others I don't even know."