CALLAWAY – The shortage of childcare across our state, including in Callaway, has been making headlines for months now. Callaway Public Schools Superintendent Bryon Hanson went so far as to call it a “crisis” during a recent school board meeting where a discussion was held on expanding the school’s existing preschool program in an effort to help alleviate the problem.
The recent closing of a daycare facility in Callaway left several parents scrambling to try to find someplace to take their children so they could continue to work. That is when two moms decided to take matters into their own hands and began researching the process of starting their own program.
Kendra Meyer and Chelsea Williams attend the same church, and the ladies said that is where their conversation began. Both had been taking their littles to the daycare that closed, and they feel fortunate that they were able to use family members and friends to help fill the void. This was the second time in less than a year that the two moms had lost their daycare provider.
“I don’t think we could have handled another daycare closing on us at that point, so we just decided maybe we were going to have to start our own,” said Meyer.
“We wanted something safe, sustainable, and reliable,” Williams added.
Meyer said while she and Williams were discussing the issue at church one day, their friend Christie Pitkin overheard the conversation and offered to help. Julianna Jenkins had also talked with Williams and she, too, offered to help.
Together the four ladies began the process of endless paperwork and grant proposals – for which they said Jenkins’ assistance was invaluable. That process began in March, and they all agreed that once the ball started rolling things moved rather quickly.
They consider themselves extremely blessed to have been able to bring Haylea Rynearson on board as the director for the new 7 Valley Kids Daycare. Rynearson just graduated from UNK with a degree in early childhood education and has worked for the past two years at the daycare in Callaway. She was also a student teacher at Callaway Public Schools this past spring, which has given her the benefit of already knowing many of the children and families she will be providing care for when the daycare opens in August.
“It is important to us to be a licensed daycare,” Meyer added. “So we began by figuring out all the hoops we had to jump through to make that happen.” The first obvious “hoop” was a location.
“We initially looked at the church itself as a potential site, because there just isn’t any space available in Callaway,” Jenkins added.
Jenkins and Williams serve together on the pastor committee at the Methodist Church, and they learned the parsonage for the church was not going to be used. “That is the perfect setup,” said Jenkins. “A lot of things just came together unexpectedly. We were nervous about how some of our older members might respond to our request to use the parsonage, but I was so impressed at how positively the entire congregation reacted and their generous acceptance.”
The team also received help from Caleb Poore, who graciously stepped in and lent his expertise to developing a business plan and budget for the new daycare. Poore was also instrumental in helping the daycare acquire a unique identification number, which is a requirement when applying for federal dollars.
“Our hope is that if we can keep our overhead costs low, then that will help improve our sustainability,” Williams added.
Jenkins said something else that was important to the team was being able to pay their director well enough to encourage her to come and stay. “We felt so strongly that Haylea was that person, and that we wanted to be able to move that money that might have gone for rent over to what we hope will be a comparable salary for her.”
The board is also currently looking for an associate director to work at the daycare, and this position can be either part-time or full-time. Interested applicants can email [email protected] with questions and to get an application.
7 Valley Kids Daycare will also rely on help from “substitutes”, which are volunteer community members. Each of those volunteers, most of whom are retired teachers and daycare providers, had to be fingerprinted and have a background check to be eligible to assist in the licensed daycare. The program will serve 12 full-time and three part-time children, ranging in age from six weeks to preschool.
The school graciously offered to provide transportation for preschool pick up and drop off and also offered to help with providing lunch to the preschool-age kiddos. “Having the transportation and lunch assistance from the school will help our daycare and other daycares within the community so much and we are very grateful for their involvement,” Meyer said.
Once word began getting around town, the ladies began receiving calls and the 12 available spots quickly filled up. They are now adding names to a waitlist.
“I didn’t have a clue the work that goes into licensing a daycare,” said Meyer. “Developing this board takes care of the business side of it and allows our director to take care of the kids and provide that quality childcare that we want. We are really grateful for the donations we have gotten, and the grants.”
Those funds are being used to purchase all of the furniture, equipment, and supplies for the daycare. 7 Valley Kids Daycare is also one of this year’s beneficiaries of the Give 4 Custer County campaign.
