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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 2022)
The BulleTin • Sunday, FeBruary 13, 2022 A7 CENTRAL OREGON’S CHILD CARE DESERT BUSINESS COURSES ACCELERATE CHILD CARE PROGRAM OPENINGS BY ZACK DEMARS The Bulletin Ryder Talcott and Kendal Sweeney are close to opening an outdoor pre- school in Bend, but the journey has been a long one. The pair plans to open a 16-slot outdoor preschool in Bend in the fall, combining Talcott’s background in the outdoor industry with Sweeney’s experience as a preschool teacher. The idea behind Maverick Out- doors is exactly what it sounds like: Kids will spend all four hours each day outside, rain or shine, playing and learning about the outdoors. The first classes will be just morning pre- school-aged sessions, but the pair plans to expand to afternoon sessions for school-aged kids to fill gaps in the child care schedules of working parents. “There are so many benefits of be- ing outside,” Sweeney said. “Getting their hands in the dirt can be benefi- cial. Spending 15 minutes in the sun- shine can be beneficial.” The couple have been thinking about developing an outdoor pre- school since 2017, when they met a family hiking with their 1-year-old through the Appalachian Trail and wondered what it takes to get kids outdoors at young ages, but they credit a program from the Central Oregon Community College Small Business Development Center with helping to turn their idea into a busi- ness plan and getting them off the ground months or years sooner. The Center’s Early Childhood Edu- cation Business Accelerator has been offering free 12-week business courses and $5,000 in funding for early-stage, in-home child care businesses since the program’s first cohort last fall. “The course touched on many things that we were aware of that we needed to iron out for our business, but that we hadn’t done yet. It really helped us to understand specifically how certain areas, like accounting, like risk management, whatever it may be, applied to our specific situa- tion,” Talcott said. Without the course, Talcott and Sweeney believe they would’ve had to wait until next year to open. “We’ve definitely had a lot more en- ergy around it ever since getting into the program, so I feel like it’s definitely coming together more quickly than it ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin Kendal Sweeney and Ryder Talcott plan to open a 16-slot outdoor preschool in Bend this fall, combining Talcott’s background in the outdoor industry with Sweeney’s experi- ence as a preschool teacher. would have otherwise,” he said. “This course just gave us the extra step for- ward in order to operate earlier. Sweeney and Talcott were two of the 10 participants in the accelerator program’s fall cohort. Of those 10, seven have launched businesses, and program leaders hope the first three cohorts of the program will help get child care slots for 250 children into the region, according to SBDC Direc- tor Ken Betschart. The program is free to participants, who attend six biweekly class ses- sions and meet one-on-one with Lisa Tynan, the instructor of the program, for personal business coaching on the topics discussed in the course. Registration details Those interested in joining the spring cohort of the SBdC’s accelerator pro- gram can still register. Classes, available in english or Span- ish, take place once every other week, with business coaching ses- sions on off-weeks. Those interested in participating can contact denise hudson at neigh- borimpact for more information: deniseh@neighborimpact.org. Once participants complete the program, they get a free year of soft- ware designed for in-home child care businesses to streamline marketing, enrollment and fee collection tasks. Once they complete their state certifi- cations, the SBDC grants them $5,000 in seed funding to help with their launch, too. One of the central topics is the basic math of any business: Evaluating the actual cost per enrolled child and set- ting sustainable rates to charge. “All these providers have hearts of gold, they are doing this because they love children, and the heart is in the right place,” Tynan said. “But they are doing themselves a great, great disser- vice if they’re not paying themselves a living wage. They’re not able to grow, they’re getting burnt out, the qual- ity of the program goes down, so we want the opposite to happen.” The program’s second cohort started last month with 23 partici- pants enrolled — 12 English speakers and 11 Spanish speakers, who will take the courses using materials trans- lated into Spanish. The third group starting this spring will be the last that’s funded by De- schutes County and the city of Bend as part of a pilot program, but Bet- schart is hopeful the program will prove its success and get funding for future years and serve as a model for similar programs statewide. e Reporter: 541-617-7814, zdemars@bendbulletin.com Redmond Proficiency Academy runs child care for school employees BY ZACK DEMARS The Bulletin When COVID-19 hit, some teachers at the Redmond Pro- ficiency Academy found them- selves taking care of dozens of kids, all from their homes. Not only did they teach their classes remotely, but some also had their own children to take care of at home as daycares closed under pandemic restric- tions. Such was the case for Laurel Eberhart, an RPA high school teacher. “My own child care closed, and so I had a 9-month-old at home, and I was teaching from home with a 9-month-old, which is not ideal,” Eberhart said. “A couple other teachers were all in the same boat, and we were like, ‘what can we do, if anything?’” School staff had previously batted around the idea of opening an on-site daycare to expand the high school’s early childhood education career and technical education track. At first, the idea seemed im- possible once the pandemic began — but once they invited staff to drop their children in an unused classroom for day- care, they saw that it could work, and that staff would be on board. The result was the school’s Learn & Play program, which offers child care for both em- ployees and community mem- bers just across the street from the school. It’s been a big boost for the academy and its staff. Eber- hart, for example, says she couldn’t find care anywhere else. “It’s nonexistent anywhere else. If I didn’t have Learn & Play for my own two kids this year, I would be the parent who quit my job,” Eberhart said. “I would not be working this year if I didn’t have it.” Hillary Kirk, who now over- sees Learn & Play, says Eber- hart isn’t alone. “What I heard from some staff members was just this relief,” Kirk said. “The idea “What I heard from some staff members was just this relief. The idea that they could find affordable child care that’s accessible to them was really kind of this factor in relieving that anxiety that someone can be a working parent and can start a family and still be able to do this in a successful and caring way.” — Hillary Kirk, oversees Learn & Play that they could find affordable child care that’s accessible to them was really kind of this factor in relieving that anxiety that someone can be a working parent and can start a family and still be able to do this in a successful and caring way.” The program started in RPA classrooms left empty by the school’s shift to online classes but has moved across the street into a building the school now rents. In launching Learn & Play, the academy had the advan- tage of already being in the ed- ucation business. That meant some of the most intense hur- dles providers face in getting their child care businesses up and running, like some zoning restrictions and required in- spections, were already taken care of. State licensing rules also mean child care centers op- erated by schools and local governments don’t have to be certified by the Early Learning Division. “We weren’t starting from the bottom,” Kirk said. “The More Information: Employer-supported child care aside from the raw benefit of increasing the availability of child care in the area, rPa leaders say having daycare available onsite is a bene- fit the school uses to attract potential employees, especially during a challenging labor market. Some at neighborimpact, which assists the region’s child care provid- ers in their operations, have pointed to rPa’s model as a good exam- ple of employer-supported child care, where employers use child care options as a benefit to attract and retain employees. a number of other models of employer-supported child care are in place across the country, like micro-centers running in the spare rooms of office buildings and child care subsidy payments to employ- ees, according to an employer toolkit neighborimpact released this year, available online at bendbulletin.us/3rirpKM. infrastructure was already there.” Six employee families have their kids enrolled in Learn & Play, as do about 18 other Red- mond families. The program’s waitlist has grown quickly, with RPA em- ployees advised to get on the waitlist early if they plan to have a child. The farthest out families have gotten on the list is around 14 weeks of preg- nancy, Eberhart said. The high demand can be a struggle, but it also provides opportunities for the acade- my’s older students. The acad- emy runs a Career and Techni- cal Education program in the daycare, so high school stu- dents interested in early child- hood education as a career path can work in for-credit internships or paid positions, getting necessary certifications and hands-on experience along the way. e Reporter: 541-617-7814, zdemars@bendbulletin.com A S ENIOR M OMENT Senior Living Solutions A Senior Moment is committed to personally assisting you with fi nding the right community to meet your needs at no cost to you! • Retirement living • Foster care • Memory/Alzheimer’s care • Nursing homes • Independent living • Assisted living Nancy Gotchy, 541-408-0570 | Tiffany Plagmann, 541-788-3487 www.aseniormoment.us We are 100% local, independent and not affi liated with any single provider network. “You can’t use up creativity. 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