EXCERPT FROM: Rapid City Journal
BY Kayla Gahagan
They had to make some changes, but school officials say Western Dakota Technical Institute’s Child Development Center is open and operating despite worries last summer that it might be closed.
“We’ve made minor improvements,” said Craig Bailey, the institute’s president.
Those changes included not filling one teaching position, increasing rates and reducing the number of kids it takes in, said Jill Winter, child care coordinator.
Officials said they were looking for another provider for the daycare center last June after announcing that it was in financial trouble.
The federally subsidized program for students and staff has been touted by state officials as a quality program, but salaries for well-paid staff, budget cuts and the governor’s decision last year not to provide the state’s technical schools with one-time money put the center in dire financial straits, Bailey said last June.
The center lost about $100,000 a year, including $160,000 in 2008.
Another contributing factor to the money woes was that in addition to the child care subsidies provided by the state through the Department of Social Services, the center was further underwriting costs with the state’s one-time monies.
Some parents fell behind in payments, Bailey said, which also created problems.
The center has since cut its costs in half, Bailey said, “but it won’t be a money maker.”
The rate for an infant or toddler is now $125 a week and for pre-school kids it is $115 a week, which is competitive locally, Winter said.
The center now has 20 pre-school students and 30 toddlers, which is 10 fewer toddlers than last year. The reduction helped with funding because the smaller ratios allowed for having one less teacher.
“Before, we took in whoever came in our door,” Winter said, many of those being institute students who were seeking quality child care while they pursued an education. “Now we’re limited. We have a huge waiting list. I get calls every day.”