Child Development Center strives to rebuild after nearly closing

by Ashleigh Behlmann

SBJ Contributing Writer

sbj@sbj.net

After staving off closure, the Child Development Center at Southwest Missouri State University is making changes to secure its future. Parents and faculty struggled to keep the center open, and SMSU awarded their efforts by allowing the center to stay open as long as it is financially self-sufficient.

"The CDC had quite a large debt that the university agreed to pay with the understanding that they would become self supporting this took place last November. When the university had recommended that the center be closed due to a financial shortfall which was the appropriate recommendation in my opinion I took part in the committee that looked at options that would make the center self sufficient. It became clear that there were a number of decisions that would make it solvent," said David Hough, PhD, acting dean of the College of Education.

As part of this process, the CDC hired Mark Casertano, PhD, as director of the facility. Casertano believes that one of the basic steps in this process is increasing community awareness of the CDC.

"People don't know we are here anymore. They heard they were going to close the place down but it's not true. We are not in the Yellow Pages, we are not in the university directory I get phone calls from people who tell me it took me four phone calls to find you.' So now we are trying to get back on the radar screen."

Casertano plans to do this through simple, cost-effective methods such as hanging a banner encouraging enrollment outside of the facility.

The other important issue facing the center is, according to Casertano, "Getting back on our feet financially. We have a preschool program where 50 percent of the children are from lower-income families, and the other half are from families who can afford to pay the full price. Then we have a program that has a half-day morning and a half-day afternoon. The problem that I have with that is that this is only run through the semesters, so when summer comes I have an empty classroom bringing in no revenue. So we have decided to run year-round, full-time programs."

Casertano said the facility plans to hold fundraisers and hopes to eventually be able to offer scholarships to families. Tuition for the programs is $160 per week for the 6-week to 2-year-old age range, $140 for 2 year olds, and $125 for preschool.

Emmett Sawyer, EdD, director of the Greenwood Laboratory School and head administrator of the Child Development Center, said: "As far as (CDC) having a formal budget, I haven't seen one. What I have been able to do thus far is break it down based on past expenditures and accounts so we can get a read on it. We will develop a formal budget for (CDC) by July 1. But we are tracking revenues versus expenditures on a weekly basis to be sure we are operating in the black."

While Sawyer isn't involved with the day-to-day operations of the Child Development Center, he oversees budgetary concerns.

Casertano also hopes that last year's addition of a program for 2-year-olds will be a financial boon to the facility.

"We are trying to work on being consistent. One of the things they started in October, before I got here, was a program for 2-year-olds. They didn't have one before. So basically you got here when your baby was 6 weeks old, the baby went through the infant program and the toddler program, and when the baby turned 2, there was no program. So children had to de-enroll then re-enroll when they were 3 for preschool. But now they can come in at the age of 6 weeks and go all the way through preschool before going off for kindergarten."

The Child Development Center has also been removed from the department of consumer and family studies and added to the College of Education.

"We realized we needed to do some reorganizing from an academic standpoint as well," said Sue George, PhD, acting director of the early childhood and family development program.

"Namely we had our child and family development faculty in one college and our childhood education program and faculty in another. When the College of Education said they would take over the CDC, there was an opportunity to bring the faculty together. We had always worked together, but this would make us one academic unit."

The consolidated program is known as Early Childhood and Family Development, and offers students two majors: child and family development, and early childhood education, which includes certification to teach in public schools.

Those involved with the facility believe that the CDC's status as a laboratory school offers children exceptional care. "The nice thing about being a lab school is that we already have good student-to-teacher ratios. Having the college students here even though they aren't officially counted in the ratio gives the children even more one-on-one time," Casertano said.

Hough added: "The more options the parents have, the better off the community is. As long as CDC continues to break even, parents will have that option. Technically, the CDC is now an arm of the Greenwood Laboratory School. So you might say we are a birth through grade 12 lab school configuration. I am not aware of any other such configuration in the nation. I like to think that we are a model school. Certainly the facilities are model; the faculty and staff are model. The level of care is exceptional."