Catholic schools respond to infant care needs

By RENEE WEBB
Content and Design Coordinator

It was in February of 2018 when the 6,100-square-foot Manzer Early Childhood Center opened its doors as an addition to Sacred Heart School in Spencer, offering childcare for 2- and 3-year-olds.

Gracie Dammann, the center’s director, said starting on Aug. 12 they expanded their services into a couple of classrooms to include infant childcare.

“We had those classrooms previously in our center, but they housed 2-year-olds,” she explained. “We have spread it out where we have an infant room (up to 12 months), a 1-year-old room (12 to 24 months), a 2-year-old room, a 3-year-old room with preschool and we offer 4-year-old up to sixth grade in our school (Sacred Heart).”

The idea to expand into infant care came after accessing community needs.

“I used to do in-home childcare before becoming the director here and I know what a huge need it is,” she said, stressing there is an even greater need for infant care. “We accessed how can we continue to spread the love and joy of Jesus throughout our community to younger ones and looked at how we could incorporate that into our program.”

Gracie Dammann, director of the childhood center 
at Sacred Heart School in Spencer.After a lot of research, Dammann had presented the idea of expanding care services to Sacred Heart pastor, Father Kevin Richter, and to the school board. Learning of the great need in the community, they fully supported the center director. The center director also began to seek potential funding sources. The Manzer Early Childhood Center at Sacred Heart secured some funds through a stipend program and received a business investment program grant of $7,125 that helped them purchase cribs.

“When we found we were able to get some funds, we thought this would be the best time to do it,” she explained.

As a Department of Human Services regulated facility, Dammann noted they are capped at 12 per room and have one adult per four infants/1-year-olds.

“Our registration is full for those two classrooms,” the director noted, adding that some slots are reserved for babies who have yet to be born. Those interested in the daycare can still fill out a registration and be placed on a waiting list.

While Sacred Heart only recently expanded their offerings to infants, John Kesselring of Bishop Garrigan Schools in Algona said Bear Care opened its doors in 2016 providing daycare for children and infants starting at age six weeks old.

“It serves our community, our staff and our families really well. The challenging part is staffing and budgeting,” said the Seton Grade School building lead, noting that the moment someone quits or calls in sick, it can create a struggle.

Christy Peterson, president of Bishop Garrigan, acknowledged the search for quality daycare is one of the primary stress factors for many families with young children.

“Bishop Garrigan Schools became committed to easing this burden for families in North Central Iowa almost 10 years ago,” she said. “We continue to strive to serve as many families as possible, but staffing concerns make large daycares a continuing struggle in rural communities.”

Kesselring pointed out Bear Care serves approximately 125 children from six weeks up to second graders after school. The daycare serves eight to 12 infants, 12 1-year-olds and 12 2-year-olds.

“There is a huge waiting list to get into daycare,” Kesselring said. “We ensure that our staff who have babies get a spot in daycare.”

In Spencer, Dammann acknowledged that incorporating infants into their early childhood center does take ePrincipal Tyler Horkey, Dammann and Amanda Frerk of Sacred Heart accept a local award.xtra staff due to the ratio requirements of 4-to-1 versus 7-to-1 with older children.

“Infants are more work, you have to be more attentive to them and it can be hard to find enough care for our infants in our community,” she said.

Despite some challenges, the centers are committed to trying to meet the needs of the community.

“It’s going over really well,” said Dammann. “A lot of people are happy to see the availability in our community.”

Sacred Heart School in Spencer and the Manzer Family Childhood Center recently received the Spencer Radio Group People's Choice Award.

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