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On January 22, 2026, the Office of Childhood (OOC0 received an allegation of Labrecia Straub, the director and LLC member has been altering the date on her business license over the last couple years and hasn't actually paid her taxes. She owes over 3,000 dollars and has written several bad checks to the City. St. Louis building inspector sent her a letter on December 23, 2025, stating Labrecia has 30 days to pay all the fees and obtain an up-to-date business license, or her occupancy permit will be stripped from her, and she will not be able to operate in that building until the issue is fixed. On January 28, 2026, Compliance Inspector (CI) Christy Hughes conducted an unannounced inspection of the facility and found the allegations to be substantiated based on the following information.
5 CSR 25-500.032(4) which states: "The person(s) or legal entity who owns a child care facility shall be responsible for meeting all debts and obligations incurred by the facility and for maintaining compliance with all licensing rules for group child care homes and child care centers."
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5 CSR 25-500.052(1)(B) which stats: "Evidence of compliance with local building and zoning requirements, if applicable;"
On January 23, 2026, CI Hughes conducted an interview via phone with St Louis City building inspector Christine Boyer. Christine stated that she has been out to the facility several times to inform them that they are $3,000 behind on their business license and that they have been operating without a business license for 2 years. The business license that has been provided has been altered. The business was provided correspondence that they had 30 days to come into compliance, or their occupancy permit would be stripped from them. She verified that the outstanding debt was paid in full on Tuesday January 20, 2026. The city had received checks that were returned with insufficient funds; therefore, Elevated Learning academy LLC was required to provide a cashier's check to move forward.
On January 23, 2026, CI Hughes conducted an interview via phone with License Collector Melissa Feneti. Melissa stated the 2025 business license was never issued. The business license the Office of Childhood (OOC) received from Elevated Learning on January 21, 2025, matched the numbers of the license that was issued to Elevated Learning in 2021, and the last business license was issued in 2023. The back payment and 2026 business license were paid on January 20, 2026.
On January 28, 2026, CI Christy Hughes conducted an interview via phone while at the facility with director/ managing member Labrecia Straub. Labrecia stated that the city has been reaching out to her stating that she had not paid her taxes to obtain her business license. She has not had a business license for the past 2 years. She denied forging any business license and sending it to the Office of Childhood and stated that her husband Keith was the person taking care of the bills and paying the city and obtaining the business license. They are currently going through a divorce, so she was not aware that he hadn't paid the taxes to obtain the business license or if he had forged any documents or not. She paid her outstanding fees to obtain her business license last week and she needs to go down to the office to pick up her current business license.
On January 29, 2026, Compliance Inspector (CI) Christy Hughes attempted to contact Kevin Straub. CI Hughes left a message and did not receive a return call.
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