Daycare is an issue that impacts the entire community. When parents cannot find quality child care, they are unable to work to provide the goods and services needed for that community. Whether it is the nursing home, hospital, restaurant or school - employees need child care options.

The topic garnered a great deal of discussion during the Callaway Board of Education meeting on Jan. 10. Public School Superintendent Bryon Hanson called the issue “a daycare and early childhood education crisis”.

“We do not have enough daycare providers in town to realistically meet the needs of our community. This became very apparent in late fall and early winter. We currently have one daycare provider in town who can take 12 kids,” said Hanson.

“When you look at the demographic of our school, we have a number of young teachers who have kids or are getting ready to start their families, and daycare is a concern for them. So we started looking at some grant opportunities to help offset the cost of expanding an education based birth to age 4 program,” Hanson said.

One area Hanson said he wants the district to take a serious look at is extending the existing 3 and 4-yearold preschool to a full-day program. That program is currently a half-day. That would in turn open up slots in the daycare for children birth to 3.

“This is not super uncommon; there are a lot of schools that do this,” Hanson said.

“The structure of the day has to be very play-based,” added Callaway preschool teacher Jenn Hickenbottom. “There has to be nap time worked in. It has to be very structured so it is developmentally appropriate for a child, so they are not just sitting in a chair as in a traditional classroom setting. The day really is almost 80 percent play - but it’s play through learning.”

Hanson said he has met with the one daycare provider in town, primarily because he wants to be very cognizant of not stepping on any toes of a local business. “All of her slots are full, and she currently has a waiting list of 28 kids,” Hanson said. “I asked her if we were to do this, what kind of pressure that would take off of her to at least whittle down the waiting list, and our estimation would be that our preschool class would run roughly about 10 kids.

“We have a crisis in our community. And I do think we are one of the entities that is equipped to help alleviate some of this issue. We are going to be stable. We’re going to be here,” Hanson continued. “This is something that would be a long-term solution for those 3-4 year-olds.”

Hanson said as an employer he is looking at experiencing a substantial amount of turnover in the next few years, as many teachers hit the retirement mark. He said that means the district will be recruiting young teachers. “Being able to say we offer a full-day 3 and 4-year-old preschool is just another feather in our cap when we go out and try to recruit. Look at the three young doctors at our hospital, and I think we have seven young kids there.

“I know this would be a cost to our district. But I feel like we owe it as a service to our community. I feel like we are going to get an educational benefit for our kids.” The question was raised by a school board member about what that would look like during the summer when school is not in session. Hanson said there are options to explore with that. “There are a lot of ways we can go, and there are pros and cons to all of those,” he said. There are also options of high-school aged kids being available to assist with childcare during the summer.

Hanson said the focus to begin with would be for the extended preschool program to operate during the school calendar year. He said the district will continue to pursue grant options to help offset costs.