Iowa Valley moves forward with plans for day care

MARENGO — After months of discussion, the Iowa Valley Community School District decided to proceed with plans to start a day care at the elementary school.

“We’ve talked till we’re blue in the face,” said Iowa Valley District Superintendent Curt Rheingans during a December school board meeting. It’s time to do something, he said.

For months the school district has discussed child care needs of parents in the Iowa Valley district with Compass Memorial Healthcare and Williamsburg Community Child Care Center, initially planning to let another agency operate the facility on school grounds.

But Rheingans said this month, “Let’s run our own program. Let’s hire our own people.”

Compass Memorial will be involved in some way, said Rheingans. Specifics will be ironed out as discussion continues.

The district will continue to consult W4Cs in Williamsburg. “They’ve been awesome to work with,” said Rheingans. “We’ll still want to pick their brains. … They’ve given us some good guidance.”

The project is a calculated risk, said Rheingans. The District will experience some growing pains, but he hopes they are minimal. The district won’t lose money with the project, he said.

Elementary School Principal Liesl Yunek will determine how many rooms will be available for day care, said Rheingans. The Department of Health and Human Services will decide how many children will be allowed in each room.

A 30-by-30-foot classroom can serve about 20 students, Rheingans said. The facility will probably be open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. year-round, he said.

“I like the thought of us just handling it,” said school board member Dan Slaymaker. “We’ll be the ones that will hear the complaints.”

“We want to control those complaints,” Rheingans said.

Marengo needs a day care facility, said Slaymaker. He works with people who take their children to Amana or Blairstown, he said.

“We’re not trying to put anyone out of business,” said Rheingans, and in-home day care services in Marengo have welcomed the idea of more child care options in town, he said.

The district hopes that providing day care in Marengo’s elementary school will encourage parents to keep their children in the district when they start kindergarten.

Iowa Valley has lost students to open enrollment because they’ve gone to day care in Williamsburg, said Rheingans. Parents keep their children in that district for consistency.

If the students start in Marengo, perhaps they’ll stay in Marengo, he said.