A child care meeting was held at Washington Elementary School (WES) on Monday night. The announcement of the meeting was sent out to the media Friday morning at 10:54 a.m. Several members mentioned it wasn’t right that the meeting was scheduled so late with some saying they only heard about the meeting over the weekend and others saying they just heard about it on Monday. Yet, despite the late announcement it was better attended than previous child care meetings that were published numerous times and multiple weeks in advance.
The premise of the meeting seemed to open with the idea that WES could be a possible site for a child care center in Crookston. The idea likely stemmed from the announce Crookston Public School’s was moving first grade to Highland Elementary. However, with the Crookston School Board voting to offer to provide an option of both half and full day preschool Superintendent Jeremy Olson explained there wasn’t space in at WES. “There was a little bit of interest in that,” said Olson. “But really with the space requirements of a daycare [center], we didn’t have that option. We have between one and two classrooms and that would be sacrificing some things [the school district] is looking at doing next year. After a short discussion, we moved onto other options. But it was a really good discussion about the future of child care and some long-term plans.”
The potential loss of three-year-old students by child care providers to Crookston Public Schools was mentioned several times, however, the school board only approved changes to the pre-k model for four-year-old students. Councilman Dale Stainbrook asked where the four- and five-year-old students go during the summer months. He said that if they need summer child care he’d think you have to pay for it all school year and that wasn’t feasible in this community. Adding that he felt the school district is taking all the gravy.
Councilman Tom Vedbraaten said if WES doesn’t have space it should be taken off the table. Brian LaPlante talked about working with the State of Minnesota, DEED, and Tri-Valley among others to find a hybrid solution stating if the community is not engaging the state then it is missing the boat. Vedbraaten countered that the state creates the regulations which have caused the issues and further state involvement is just more regulations.
CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth was asked to provide the attendees of the meeting with the list of places in Crookston that had been visited and eliminated as possible child care sites. Hoiseth said he would send it to the contact list, saying he didn’t have the information with him as he’d only been informed of a tour Monday night, not a meeting. Mayor Guy Martin who organized the meeting and has a record of those site visits also didn’t bring the information with him.
Emily Salentine, the owner of Auntie Ems Daycare operated out of the Grove Motor Sports building, said that building had space for up at least 49 children on the half she occupies but she is a family daycare with two staff so state regulations limit her to 14 children. She also said the other half of the building was unoccupied and that no one had ever toured it. Hoiseth stated he had spoken to the owner of the facility and at that time the owner wasn’t interested in the idea, also adding that a daycare center would require a commercial kitchen and fire suppression system to be installed. Salentine told Hoiseth he hadn’t talked to anyone and when Hoiseth said he had. The sentiments were repeated several times by both during and after the meeting.
Councilman Don Cavalier said consideration also needed to be given to the cost of making a facility work. Hoiseth, who was directed last month during a CHEDA meeting to come up with some solid numbers for the Glenmore Recovery Center by the May CHEDA meeting says he plans to have those numbers for that facility then. And Robin Brekken said the community has to consider two separate costs. What is the cost for a facility and what is the cost to the Crookston community if child care doesn’t get figured out and there aren’t enough spots available? “I think that this is a community issue,” said Brekken. “It is related to jobs, it is related to housing. There is potential pretty big industry on the horizon coming to this town. We’re going to need housing, we’re going to need child care, we’re going to need infrastructure to handle this and it’s going to come at a cost. You either put yourself into a position to deal with this so the community can continue to grow. Or if you don’t you’re going to die on the vine. I don’t think anybody here wants that to happen.”
A future meeting was discussed where Hoiseth would share the numbers related to the Glenmore Recovery Center option with the child care workers with Tuesday, May 21 being a likely date for an evening meeting. Hoiseth also invited everyone to attend the public CHEDA meeting that same morning instead of having a second meeting just for those numbers while also mentioning all CHEDA meetings are fully covered by the local media who would also be sharing that information.
