Three hundred children sit on a waiting list to get into Kansas University’s Hilltop Child Development Center, but that line could shrink in the future.

The day care center is moving ahead with $2 million plans to construct a six-classroom addition to the building, opening up space for another 80 to 100 children.

“There’s definitely a need for it,” said Melissa Holder, a KU student whose children go to the center. “I’ve heard that parents actually plan their pregnancies so they can keep their children here.”

The center, off Irving Road, has long struggled with its own popularity. Even after an expansion in 2000, the waiting list grew as KU students and employees clamored for a place in the conveniently located, nationally accredited facility.

Though its primary mission is to serve KU students, the center is coveted by employees and functions as something of a recruitment tool for new KU hires.

“The university has recognized that we have a great deal of recruitment value for incoming faculty and many of them actually build it into their negotiations with the university,” said Pat Pisani, executive director of the center.

But though KU reserves five openings for new hires, there’s a waiting list of more than a dozen seeking to get in through that route, Pisani said.

The center is supported by student fees. Funds from student fees and user fees will pay for part of the expansion, with another roughly $1 million to be paid for by the university, Pisani said.

Freddy McConnell, 2, finds out that cheese sticks stick well to his forehead during snack time for 1 and 2-year-olds Tuesday in the Turtle Room at the Hilltop Child Development Center. The center at Kansas University is adding a new wing, complete with six new classrooms.

The center is L-shaped and the expansion plan calls for extending both ends of the building. Though the timeline hasn’t been set, Pisani said she expected the expansion to be completed in two steps, the first as early as January 2008 and the second in the fall of that year.

It will be too late to help some.

Lori Reesor, KU associate vice provost for student success, said she had hoped to place her children at Hilltop when she took her new job earlier this year. But with no space, she ended up placing her children in separate centers.

“It was just stressful during the time,” Reesor said. “That’s the hard part for new faculty and staff. You’re trying to make decisions early and you don’t have that issue resolved.”

Pisani said the expansion also may see an increase in the number of slots offered to new hires. But even though five slots for new hires may seem small, the numbers add up over the years as children stay in the program and their siblings are placed there.

“Those families are starting to add up to a significant portion of the population,” Pisani said. “The difficulty there is our mission to serve students.”

The children of KU students make up about 55 percent of the center’s 212 children.