A day care consortium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Abstract

cc I n Cedar Rapids, we enjoy a great variety of business-education partnerships,” says Sue Pearson, long-lime volunteer coordinator for the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Community School District. “But the Five Seasons Day Care consortium is truly one of 2 kind. it is a unique partnership that combines the strengths of alI of the partners to provide a vital service to the community.” It all began five years ago when the Cedar Rapids school district entered into a partnership with St. Luke’s, one of Cedar Rapids’ two hospitals, to establish and manage the community’s first corporate clay care consortium-the Five Seasons Day Care Center. Although the partnership began with plans for only one day-care site for 20 children, there :lre now five sites, serving 671 children, with six corporate sponsors, along with the school clistrict ancl the hospital. Two additional sites will open next fall. The project began when Stephen Daeschner, the superintendent of schools, and Sam Wallace, the hospital’s president, after conducting staff surveys, found that quality day care was 2 major priority among their employees. Realizing this need existecl, and valuing the concept of collaboration as a successful business practice, they decided to esplore the estahlishnient of a day care center to serve their employees. There were two immediate obstacles to overcome: finding 3 site to house the project ancl provicling the necessary startup costs. The first obstacle was resolved easily hecause the school clistrict, through reorganization, had space availaMe at Arthur Elementary School. However, neither the district nor the hospital coulcl provide the startup funding. The solution was to seek a third partner, a corporate sponsor, whose employees woulcl also be able to participate in the program. It was agreecl th3t the sponsor woulcl provicle one-time startup funcling, the school clistrict would provide A school district, a hospital, and some local businesses combine to ease the burden on working parents. the site ancl staff, and the hospital woulcl provide the health care, meals, bookkeeping services, and puhlit relations. All the costs of operating the clay care, except the initial corporate contribution, would be coverecl hy clay-care fees, which woulcl he competitive with other clay-care centers in I the area. The goal was to become totally self-supporting after the first year ancl then use profits to provide a sliding-scale fee schedule for families whose incomes would qualit+ for a subsidizecl rate. By the encl of the first year, enrollment hacl grown from 20 to a near-capacity 105 chilclren. Although the initial services included only preschool ancl clay care for children from 1S months to five years of age, other programs, such as summer clay camp, “clrop-in care,” and beforeancl after-school care, were addecl because of requests from parents. In 1990, the school district cleciclecl to reopen Grant Elementary School-which had been closecl and vacant since 1987-3s the Grant Early Chilclhood Center. The plan was to expand the very successful Five Seasons Day Care program into ;I seconcl building ancl add an infant care program, which would serve chilclren agecl six weeks to 18 months. Immediately, five aclclitional corporate sponsors were sought to provide the one-time startup funding at the Grant site. The five corporations agreed to share in provicling the money in exchange for the opportunity to have their employees participate in Five Seasons at either site. The startup money was to be considered a loan-not a contribution. If the clay-care program began to