Childcare coordinator Whitney Budd, right, interacts with children of Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp. staff members at the system’s Little Flyers daycare.
Brad Davis | The Republic
The 3-year old child of Hauser Jr./Sr. High School English teacher Makayla Caldwell goes to school every day with her mom looking forward to hanging out with what she calls her “big friends.”
Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp. offers reduced-rate childcare for all staff at the Little Flyers Daycare, where children from 6 weeks up to 5-years-old come while their parents carry out their duties educating.
Hope is located in a childcare desert, leaving few options for teachers and staff in the building if they have children of their own. The options are either too far away, too expensive or both, and it has had an impact in the past keeping teachers working in the buildings that house Hope Elementary and Hauser Jr./Sr. High School.
That was on Superintendent Shawn Price’s mind in going through the process to make the day care, now in its second year, a reality.
“I saw this really as a retention effort, to try to make sure we keep our people here in the district,” Price said. “… It went better than I could have expected.”
Retention is in the mid-90s percentage-wise since childcare became available in the building last year, according to school district officials. Childcare is offered to school corporation employees at just $25 dollars per day and so far there are 17 kids enrolled, with more expected next semester, Price said.
For Caldwell, now in her sixth year teaching at the school, it’s been a valued addition.
“It took a big burden off, just being able to have them here, knowing that they’re safe and not have to worry about the payments,” Caldwell said. “One of the things that I like about it so much is that it makes this place feel like a family — Hauser feels like family anyway, and so having my family here with my school family is awesome, and I love that my students get to interact with my child.”
Childcare coordinator Whitney Budd runs the facility, equipped with extensive experience in early childhood care. She attended school in the building herself, and had worked a number of years for Early Learning Community in Johnson County — a nonprofit that piloted preschool programs in public schools in the area. Budd also operated a daycare and preschool in her house for nearly a decade and helped open Children’s Cottage, a brick-and-mortar daycare center, with her aunt in Columbus.
“Our main thing is we don’t ever want to lose a teacher because of childcare, so we’re going to do whatever we can, and Shawn (Price) is a huge advocate and proponent of making sure that his staff has what they need,” Budd said.
Little Flyers Daycare is situated in the high school section of the school and consists of two former classrooms renovated for the new use. One room, formerly for art class, is where the kids spend most of their time learning and playing. One little boy fastidiously puts together a Play-Doh creation while on the other side of the room a little girl enjoys the simplicity of a wooden whale rocker.
Across the hall is the spot for lunch and nap time. It used to be a chemistry lab when Budd attended, she said, and has two adjoining nursing rooms as well for staff members with the younger children.
“Whitney’s amazing. I know right now it’s just a daycare, but she really is doing pre-school stuff with them,” Caldwell said standing outside her classroom. “She’s going above and beyond what a daycare needs.”
Activity in the childcare area gets started at 7:30 a.m. when teachers come to drop off their kids. The “little flyers” get fueled up with breakfast, then comes circle time, informed by a curriculum very similar to what those in the building’s kindergarten are learning.
“I implement the same curriculum that I have implemented in the past, and we try to align very closely to the same curriculum that they’re doing in kindergarten here, so that we are ensuring kiddos are going in ready,” Budd said. “Then we move on to whatever our thematic unit is that week — this week was numbers. Today we are rolling a dice, and if you roll a five, then you’re painting the number five with your finger on your paper.”
The hope is to expand next year — Flat Rock plans to hire another part-time staff member and reserve the lunch and nap room for infants and toddlers, leaving the other classroom for the older kids.
Devin Gray, a middle school math teacher, has his 6-month old daughter in childcare at the school.
“It’s really cool to bring her to work with me. When I come in, I drop her off to daycare and it’s just right down there,” Gray said in between a lesson about exponents. “A lot of times I’ll go pop in there right before I go to lunch, and I’ll say hi, give her a kiss and play with her a little bit.”
“It’s nice to have access to her if I need her, if she needs me,” Gray continued. “And then having someone as experienced and professional as Whitney, someone who knows and cares about kids, it’s just a big weight off our shoulders.”
Budd works with a longtime colleague, Stephanie Emmitt, and also receives help from high school students involved in an early childcare program. In fact, some of the high school aides had been preschoolers of Budd’s in the past.
“It’s cool to see. I had them at the same age, and then I can see how they’re now seniors and can really play a role in the room,” Budd said.
Sometimes, the high school aids are able to connect with the young children in unique ways. One little boy had not been very verbal before bonding with an older student, according to Budd. Now the pair read stories together with the younger one repeating the words read to him.
Another high school student who had a sister pass away gravitated toward a little girl who reminded him of her.
“She is like his shadow; they are buddies,” Budd said. “Not only is it meeting that need, but we’re also seeing how this plays a role in early education, as well as the silver lining in a lot of teenagers’ days.”
