Lisbon Early Childcare Center will be expanding this summer to include an additional daycare facility.
Lisbon superintendent Autumn Pino announced the plans to expand childcare offerings at the school board meeting May 10.
“Lisbon Early Childcare Center made a commitment to serve the community to the best of our ability,” Pino said. “Our current daycare opportunities are a top choice and continue to strengthen our school, as we are uniquely invested to offer care for students from six weeks old up to 18 years of age.”
Pino said an exploratory committee was launched earlier this spring to see if increasing childcare options was viable. The district was aware of the need for more childcare in the Mount Vernon and Lisbon communities, especially after Turtle Club daycare closed doors early last summer.
The committee was tasked with searching funding options, looking at local real estate options and analyzing if growth of the daycare could be financially sustainable.
Pino said that after strong consideration, they recommended expanding the LECC to a second site, to increase the opportunities for care of infants through 3-years-old.
The targeted opening for the daycare will be the first week in September of this year.
“Our goal with this second center is to be more fluid based on community need,” Pino said. “If we see a large increase in need for infant childcare or more toddler childcare needs, we’d work to cater for that need at the center.”
The LECC will continue their center near the school as well, with that center hosting school age children.
“We would be able to serve an additional 50 to 60 children with this additional daycare center,” Pino said.
The space for that center was at 950 Commercial Street, in property owned by Budget Blinds and previously used by Turtle Club for their own daycare.
“Because it was previously licensed as a daycare center, that made it an ideal location for expansion,” Pino said. “Bre is already applying for the needed licensure for the center, and we’re working on getting the needed inspections from groups like fire marshals before we would open this center.”
“It’s going to be a lot of work between now and the opening of this new space, but I’m really excited about this opportunity,” Ties said.
With the addition of another childcare center Pino notes one of the items that will be needed in the community is people who will help staff so the daycares can keep to the proper adult to child ratios needed to run the daycares.
“We anticipate many of our current teacher leaders will help to make this a smooth transition of care at our additional site,” Pino said.
Pino also thanked the work of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon League of Women Voters Early Childcare Solutions group and Budget Blinds for their help on work on this issue.
“Colette Nakielski and the League helped us brainstorm when it came to looking at this LECC expansion and looking at possible funding opportunities,” Pino said. “They have also been very supportive and have a real passion for the childcare issue in this community, and that encouragement has been extremely helpful.”
Terry Sills, Cassidy Reinken and John Reinken also were pragmatic in their work with the school and the community to make this daycare opportunity.
Pino said aside from the work of the committee and partners in the community, that the work of LECC director Bre Ties was what really guided this moving forward.
“Bre is very passionate about this work and behind this decision every step of the way,” Pino said. “It would be very hard for us to do this without having a great director behind this project.”
Pino also said it was also a testament to the board’s continued forward thinking and community involvement that it was a unanimous 5-0 vote in favor of this project.
“This wasn’t even on our radar before February, and the board listened to what our representatives found, as well as heard about the need in the community and voted on a way to help solve this problem,” Pino said. “That we’re working to solve a problem we see in the community and live up to that community school district name is exciting.”