Local business professionals brainstorm solutions to childcare needs

By Bryce Kelly, Mt. Pleasant News

When it comes to addressing the issue of childcare, various organizations in southeast Iowa are coming together in the hopes that open, honest conversation might boost positive change and better meet the demand for quality childcare for local working families.

On Friday, Southeast Iowa Early Childhood invited local business leaders, educators and childcare workers to a luncheon at Iowa Wesleyan University to hear from local business heads on different ways to combat the need for childcare facilities. David Duncan, of Tyson Foods, in Columbus Junction, Steve Ita, Danville School principal, and Jim Kammerer, of Great River Medical Center?s Kid Zone, all spoke to luncheon attendees.

According to Duncan, it was Tyson Foods? idea to get involved in the talk for childcare after seeing the statistics. According to Duncan, it?s proven that parents who have access to quality, affordable childcare for their kids work more effectively, have fewer sick days, and businesses as a whole see less employee turnover. And while it was not feasible to open an onsite childcare facility, the large corporation has gotten creative with addressing the issue.

?We have some good early childhood providers in our area, whether that be local churches, private daycares, and so on. As a company we have found ways to support those groups financially through donations and such to help keep them going,? he said. ?As I am sure the other panelists can attest to, childcare is not cheap, but we need our local providers to stay operational for the sake of our employees.?

According to Duncan, those donations have allowed local facilities to extend their hours to accommodate extra shifts that Tyson has had to implement, and increase their longevity.

?My guess is that there are a lot of other businesses like ours that could do something like what we have done, and make it successful,? he said. ?I would recommend it as something to look into, as it has worked really well in our community.?

For both Ita and Kammerer, building onsite day care facilities was a feasible way to not only provide quality childcare for their employees, but also be more attractive to employees and customers.

Great River Kid Zone is an onsite daycare open 12 hours a day to children of Great River Medical Center employees. The facility can hold roughly 86 children at one time. Danville Early Learning Center incorporates early childhood special education with three separate classrooms for infants, toddlers, and school age children, as well as two preschool classrooms.

According to Kammerer, the medical center?s decision to build the million ?dollar facility came from an employee-based need and the desire of the hospital to attract top-notch medical providers. Overall, Kammerer says the facility has been a success, and the health center is hoping for ways to expand in the future.

?People need childcare,? said Kammerer. ?But they don?t want to just take their child anywhere?We thought and planned for quite awhile before we built our facility, but since we?ve had it, we?ve been able to use it to attract more workers and increase productivity of our staff.?

In fact, the facility is so popular among staff that Kammerer stated Kid Zone currently has a waiting list that stretches to May 2018. Opening it to just employee?s children, Kammerer says has also allowed for a better sense of familial bonding among employees and decreased staff turnover.

According to Ita, Danville has seen similar responses to their Early Childhood Center. A need for daycare facilities in Danville was what spurred the district?s decision to build, said Ita. In addition, he said the daycare also attracts open enrollment to the district, which he insists is a plus for small, rural schools like Danville to stay running.

?We are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., year round. Our goal is to make our facility not just a place to drop off your kids for the day, we want to make it a quality experience for parents because we feel that?s what kids deserve and what parents want,? he said. ?Parents need to know their kids are being taken care of, but also that they are being enriched, and we carry that from daycare all the way to our seniors in high school.?

Danville?s facility designs lesson plans for both the preschool and daycare, and can employ roughly 15 employees.

Although both Ita and Kammerer say their organizations have seen the benefits of onsite daycare, they say it?s not for everyone. Both cited pricey government regulations and the struggle to provide workers with competitive wages as being the biggest hurdles to running childcare centers currently.

?The amount of regulation is really huge and pretty expensive,? said Ita. ?And we do struggle to find employees from time to time. We want to offer them competitive wages, but we also have things that we have to provide ? training and so on ? that are pricey. It?s a tricky thing, which is why I think we are seeing such a need right now. Not everyone can afford to open these facilities.?

Overall, Duncan says that while Great River, Danville Schools and Tyson have all found ways to address the need for childcare for working families in a way that works for their organization, he says the way individual businesses address the issue may look very different.

?I think the key is to start talking to your employees and finding out what they need. Then, finding ways to financially provide that service and see where you can go,? he said. ?It?s not easy, and it might not be a quick process, but I think you will find that it?s worth looking at.?