Staff members of the Little Buffs Daycare Center are, from left, Prairie View senior Kaylee Ring, Julie Wollard, Director Bonnie Hobson, and juniors Violet Hudec and Kaylee Rhynerson. The student helpers will work part-time and have taken courses with early childhood development curriculum. (Photos by Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)
By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com
LA CYGNE – It has been a frustrating fall for the Prairie View administrative team and the director and employees of the Little Buffs Daycare Center.
When the USD 362 Board of Education gave the final go-ahead in June to begin work converting the former district bus barn in La Cygne to a daycare center, the hope of district Superintendent Chris Johnson was that it would be ready to go by as early as Sept. 3.
The contractor for the work, Combes Construction Co., after receiving approval for its bid of $353,000, began the process of turning the former garage into a clean, classroom like facility. The structure had only been used for storage since a new transportation building was constructed at the high school-middle school complex west La Cygne several years ago
It would need to withstand the rigorous inspection of both the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s office and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).
PVHS senior Kaylee Ring looks through certificates she has earned that have helped her prepare to work in the daycare center. In addition to working in the nursery at her church, she has earned a certified nursing assistant (CNA) certificate and is also taking an mergency medical technician class in the STARS program in Pleasanton.
However, a series of delays, including arrival of a new exterior door and windows and cabinets for the kitchen area have wreaked havoc on the expected opening date.
Delays in the arrival of doors and windows were finally resolved late in September, and earlier this month, the cabinets were installed. The stringent guidelines followed by the KDHE inspector required approval by the state fire marshal’s office as well as all the building’s mechanical systems being operational.
The daycare center passed its final KDHE inspection on Monday, Oct. 7, and on Tuesday night at the Prairie View school board meeting Johnson announced the center had open its doors the day before.
As expected, because of the delay in completion the number of children attending the first day was low because parents who might otherwise use the facility have by now made other child care arrangements.
PVHS math teacher Tamala Snyder and senior Rylee Davis sort through donated toys and books at the center. The two volunteered to work at the daycare during the school's community service day in September.
However, center Director Bonnie Hobson is confident that once the center opens, it will quickly fill up.
The plan has been to offer daycare to the parents of preschool students. Those students attend half days, and the concept was to provide a structured daycare environment for the half days those students were not in school.
The school board, some of them leery that all of the financing was not in place for renovation of the building, voted against starting construction last June, waiting until they were more confident that the grants Johnson was counting on for construction would be there.
Dakota Wallace, an employee of Combes Construction, installs pint-sized fixtures in one of the daycare's restrooms.
However, once there were more concrete assurances that if they built it, the money would come, the project was a go even though some board members still weren’t convinced it was a good idea. A least one member expressed his concern that adding daycare to the district’s many other projects was an example of government overreach.
The grant money did start coming in over the summer. United Way of Miami and Linn Counties gave the district nearly $165,900, up from the $121,000 amount that non-profit said it would give. Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative donated $10,000, up from the $5,000 grant for which the district applied.
The Patterson Family Foundation, which has provided grant money for a similar project in the Louisburg school district, has given tentative commitment for a $175,000 grant. However, the district has not been officially notified of that award yet.
Rhynerson, left, and Hudec remove doors from a toy kitchen set that will be set up in the outside playground.
Despite the construction delays and the subsequent delays of inspections, other parts of the physical operation were taking shape. News that the daycare center would need toys and books for the children resulted in an outpouring of donations.
On Thursday, Sept. 19, piles of games and books lay neatly stacked on the floor. That day, four students and a teacher from the high school arrived at the center to help sort through those piles and perform other tasks.
Organized and ready for use, activity stations have been set up in the spacious room.
The students, including three students who have been hired to work in the daycare center, along with their sponsor math teacher Tamala Snyder, sorted through those piles, washed paint splashes off the siding, purposely broke the doors off a tot-sized kitchen cabinet. They worked alongside Hobson and Julie Wollard, who will be a substitute director when Hobson is away.
As the interior of the building came together, activity stations were set up around the room, a large screen was set up in a reading area, and some tricycles were parked by the door leading to the fenced off playground.
Finally last week, security cameras were installed around the building, including one near the front entryway.
An open house, originally slated for sometime in August, took place on Thursday, Oct. 10, signaling that the Little Buffs Daycare is ready to begin business.
Comments