The Learning Tree Childcare Center in Lansing launches capital campaign to open permanent childcare center in former Lansing Middle School building
Future home of a permanent childcare center ... Plans are underway to make a portion of the former Lansing Middle School (pictured above) into a permanent childcare center by The Learning Tree Childcare Center. A capital campaign is being launched to help finance the estimated $500,000 renovation project, with the Lansing and New Albin communities and surrounding areas having the opportunity to invest in the project and the future of their communities. Photo courtesy of The Learning Tree Childcare Center.
Facilitating social-emotional growth ... The preschool class at The Learning Tree Childcare Center in Lansing is pictured above showing their feelings and emotions puppets. “Social-emotional growth is such an important part of our preschool program,” Director Jenny Cole says. Photo courtesy of The Learning Tree Childcare Center.
Learning within their community ... The new Before and After School program students at New Albin Elementary School recently participated in a STEM activity at the New Albin Library. “Community engagement is an important part of our curriculum and program,” Director Jenny Cole says. Photo courtesy of The Learning Tree Childcare Center.
Meeting with Senator Ernst ... Learning Tree Director Jenny Cole, left, met with Senator Joni Ernst, right, during the Senator’s River to River Tour stop at the Postville Childcare Center to talk about improving access, affordability and quality of childcare in Iowa. “I was able to discuss with her our plans for the new childcare center and the challenges our rural communities face with childcare and how it affects not only families but our businesses and school district,” Cole says. “We were also able to share with her the benefits of the Wage Enhancement Pilot Program Allamakee County was selected to participate in during 2023 and advocate for the program to continue not only for our county but the entire state.” Photo courtesy of The Learning Tree Childcare Center.
by Julie Berg-Raymond
The Board of Directors of The Learning Tree Childcare Center is launching a capital campaign to bring to fruition its five-year plan to open a permanent childcare center for the Lansing and New Albin communities. After much consideration, the location selected for the Center is the former Lansing Middle School.
“Director Jenny (Cole) did a lot of research for a location and the board members helped brainstorm,” Board President of The Learning Tree Childcare Center Lisa Welsh says. “Finding a large space is very difficult and the old middle school had some challenges; but with brainstorming and Jenny’s hard work, we worked around those problems.”
LEARNING TREE CHILDCARE CENTER: A HISTORY
According to Cole, The Learning Tree Childcare Center’s journey started in December 2022, when a group of school and community members met to talk about the needs of the Eastern Allamakee Community School District (EACSD). “The two biggest struggles the group felt their communities were facing were childcare and housing,” Cole says.
“Two years later, childcare and affordable housing continue to be the conversation on the table,” Cole says. “But we are excited to share that we have made major moves in helping with the ‘childcare desert’ in Lansing and New Albin.”
According to the Center for American Progress (CAP), 51 percent of people in the United States live in a childcare desert - which is defined by CAP as “any census tract with more than 50 children under age 5 that contains either no childcare providers or so few options that there are more than three times as many children as licensed childcare slots” (childcaredesert.org).
After that December 2022 meeting, a group was formed with the goal of creating a 3-Year-Old Preschool. Eight months later, they created a 501(c)3 nonprofit - The Learning Tree Childcare Center - and opened their 3-Year-Old Preschool.
“We have served 30 three- and four-year-olds in the last two years in our program and have partnered with the EACSD and Lansing library to make this program successful,” Cole says.
FIVE-YEAR PLAN
“When we began the work on the preschool program, we knew our work was just beginning,” Cole recalls. “We knew families needed more help in finding safe and reliable childcare for all age groups.”
The group developed a five-year plan, broken down into a three-phase approach, as follows: Phase 1 - Open the 3-Year-Old Preschool Program; Phase 2 - Start before and after school care for 4-year-old Pre-Kindergarten-4th grade students at New Albin Elementary School; Phase 3 - Open a childcare center in either Lansing or New Albin.
On the first day of school in August 2024, the first day of school-age care was also held at New Albin Elementary School. Over the course of 18 months, Director Cole, The Learning Tree Childcare Center Board of Directors and EACSD worked with community members and organizations to open the preschool and before-and-after-school care for their communities. They currently serve 40 students in their School-Age Program. And, says Cole, “our number of students keeps growing each month.”
The group continued its work in developing a childcare center in the two communities while they opened their new programs, Cole says. They had several meetings with EACSD, local businesses and architects to try to find the right solution to the area’s childcare shortage.
“After many discussions and different plans, we decided to go forth with the plan that utilized an already existing space to help preserve the building and keep costs down,” she says. “We concluded that renovating the Lansing Middle School would be the most cost-effective solution to a childcare center and we have been working on making that dream into reality.”
To read the full article, pick up the Wednesday, November 27, 2024 print edition of The Standard or subscribe to our e-edition or print edition by clicking here.
