The Greene County supervisors received information and a request for funding for the Paton-Churdan Early Learning Center at their April 7 meeting.
P-C ELC board president Cassie Fiedler and director Whitney Minnehan, with P-C school principal Annie Smith, made the presentation.
The P-C ELC has been housed in a modular building that was placed at the east end of the school building in 1999 to provide extra space while renovations were being done in the school. The 36,000 square-foot, four-room modular building was purchased used. The school then leased the building to a private daycare provider, and in 2015 the school took over the daycare center, using one room as a classroom.
Paton-Churdan Early Learning Center became a non-profit organization in 2017, Fiedler said. She said the building was constructed to last 10-15 years, and maintenance has become an issue. The roof and windows leak, and heating and cooling isn’t reliable.
According to Smith, the day care has become essential to the school, “not only as a service for our community and surrounding communities, but it’s also essential for our school. A lot of our teachers utilize it for their children.” she said. “It’s an absolutely essential piece to what we do.”
The school maintains the building because of the preschool being there, “and it is not very financially responsible for us (the school). We work hard to be good stewards of our taxpayers’ dollars,” Smith said. The district has spent more than $50,000 on repairs to the building over the past three years.
PC-ELC currently serves 24 families from all parts of the county and southern Webster County. There are 45 children enrolled and another five not-yet-born infants. The three rooms are filled with no space left for storage. The 3-year-old room doubles as a school-age room after school and during breaks. There are sometimes as many as 25 students in the after-school program.
Meals are prepared by the school; when school isn’t in session, staff brings in crockpots and air fryers.
The P-C ELC board began looking at other options three years ago. Fiedler said an architect designed a building for them that would cost $2.7 million and the process would take longer than two years.
However, the closing of the First United Methodist Church in Churdan opened up a possibility. The church board offered to sell the building to the P-C ELC for $10,000.
Preliminary plans show the building renovated to five rooms – two infant rooms, two toddler rooms, and a school-age room. There would be a full kitchen, office and storage space, and two playground areas. Total size would be 6,700 square-feet. Total capacity would be 60 children. Pre-kindergarten move back into the school building.
The renovation is estimated at $1.7 million (including a 25 percent contingency) and could be done by the end of summer. The estimate doesn’t include playground equipment or furnishings.
The P-C ELC board has started writing grants and hopes to hire someone to help with fundraising and grantwriting. Greene County Development Corporation has agreed to pay architectural costs.
Smith reminded the supervisors of the “dire need” for childcare, particularly in the northern part of the county.
Fiedler said there are no longer the state funds available that the Greene County Early Learning Center was able to tap into.
Fielder said the urgency in the project comes from the condition of the building they’re in. “If the roof were to collapse next week, we’d have to shut down,” she said. There aren’t spaces in other area daycares for the displaced children and the 14 persons who work at the daycare would not have jobs, she added.
The P-C ELC is requesting $250,000 from the county, paid over five years, which is what the county provided to the Greene County Early Learning Center.
The P-C ELC board applied to Grow Greene County for funding, looking for a catalyst to the fundraising. However, the grant wasn’t funded. They’re now looking for that kickstart to fundraising. Once that’s secured and pledges are made, the board will talk with local banks about financing.
Supervisors board chair John Muir said they were aware when they awarded funding to the Greene County Early Learning Center that they’d be asked to do the same for the Paton-Churdan center at some time.
“You have our support,” Muir told Fiedler. “At what level, we can’t say yet. We need to do our own calculations… The investment here in town (Greene County ELC) has been a good investment, and I’m sure it’d be just a good an investment in Churdan.” Muir said the supervisors would put their minds together and figure out how to support the project. “It’s important for the whole county to have facilities available to families,” he said.
