(Red Oak) Officials with the Red Oak Child Development Center are excited to be moving forward and gearing up for the opening of the new childcare center in August.
According to Child Care Resource and Referral, on average 1 in 2 children in Iowa go without access to affordable, quality childcare. Laura Kloewer, ROCDC Board Vice-Chair, said the Iowa Women’s Foundation and Childcare Resource Referral did some studies on the need for childcare in Iowa and Red Oak was identified as a place that had a severe lack of childcare slots.
“They reached out and kind of helped get some things rolling and get some things off the ground and they’ve been wonderful to work with and they’re huge advocates for the need for quality childcare in the state of Iowa and the impacts that it can have on a community’s economic development, so we’re excited to have more spaces here in Red Oak to offer for children,” said Kloewer.
As of 2019, Montgomery County had 1,186 children under the age of 9 and only 504 available spaces in existing licensed childcare facilities.
The goal of the Red Oak Child Development Center is to be an additional facility in the community that provides quality, education-based childcare in a safe and nurturing environment. The Red Oak Child Development Center will provide all day care for children aged 6 weeks to 4 years, and after-school and summer programming for children up to 12 years of age.
“There seems to be a big lack of care for kids that aren’t quite old enough to stay at home but also can’t go to a 
traditional daycare because they’re in school every day, so we’re excited to be offering that after school program for those ages and we’re really excited about having a new center opening in Red Oak, the partnership with the school, we have two unique comprehensive curriculum programs that we’re going to be using that will be working closely with the preschool so that it will be an easy transition for kiddos from daycare up into preschool,” explained Kloewer.
Some big milestones and accomplishments necessary for opening have been reached recently, including the completion of construction inside the old Washington School building – now referred to as the Red Oak Early Childhood Center. This building is still owned by the Red Oak Community School District and will continue to house their 4-year-old preschool program. Red Oak Child Development Center will be renting space in the Red Oak Early Childhood Center.
Indoor construction is complete and the Red Oak Child Development Center is beginning to move in and furnish the rooms. They will be renting four rooms in the ROECC building. These rooms will be used as an infant room, a pre-toddler/transitional room, and two toddler rooms. Each room will feature newly renovated flooring, emergency exits, and bathrooms designed for toddlers. Another feature of the new building renovation is the main entryway. Originally, visitor access to the building was through the southwest entryway. Now, the only entrance has been moved to the southeast side so that the employee in charge of allowing visitors into the building will be able to immediately see who is entering and ensure that the facility is safe and secure at all times.
The Red Oak Early Childcare Center will be sharing both the indoor gymnasium and media center with the ROCDC. Besides the indoor renovations, work is also being done to the outdoor area for a play space that is accommodating for all ages.
In addition to moving in, hiring the remainder of the staff is one of the next big steps.
“We do have our Director hired, Jacque Howell is from the Griswold/Elliot area and we are very excited to have her as our Director, she has a lot of years of childcare experience and we’re going to be hiring soon for teachers so that’s exciting and we’re getting closer,” said Kloewer. “You know, with everything going on with COVID it’s definitely put a little bit of a spin on things that we’ve had to reorient a little bit as a lot of childcare centers have, but we’re really excited to be moving forward and to be opening soon.”
As for the rest of the board and volunteers they will be focusing on fundraising and giving the community the opportunity to get involved with this project. As our world begins to re-open and resume some sense of normalcy, ROCDC recognizes that things are changing constantly. ROCDC is now and will continue to monitor the situation closely and will adhere to all state guidance as they move toward opening and operating the center.
For more information, check out the Red Oak Child Development Center Facebook page.
Montgomery County Child Development Association (MCCDA) is a board governed 501c3, nonprofit corporation. The first project of this organization is to open the Red Oak Child Development Center (ROCDC). MCCDA began in fall 2018 as a small group of volunteers and has evolved into a large coalition of individuals all working together to realize the dream of opening the Red Oak Child Development Center.
