Children's Learning Centers need your support this National Nonprofit Day

National Nonprofit Day is coming up on Monday, Aug. 17. This year, Oakland Family Services is asking for donations to support our Children’s Learning Centers in Pontiac and Walled Lake.

Our Children's Learning Centers are known for providing high-quality childcare and preschool programs that enrich children emotionally, socially, physically and intellectually. They give parents reliable childcare, prepare children for kindergarten and provide free preschool through the Great Start Readiness Program for children at risk of educational failure.

However, like so many other childcare centers across Michigan that are now struggling to keep their doors open, our Children’s Learning Centers are facing financial hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Our centers closed when Michigan’s stay-at-home order began in March. In July, Oakland Family Services recognized a need for essential workers to have childcare and opened our summer camps at extremely limited capacity — just 12 to 16 students per center, as opposed to the usual 90 to 100 in Pontiac and 40 in Walled Lake.

While operating at a huge financial loss, the summer camps have acted as a sort of pilot program, allowing our staff to fine-tune new cleaning procedures and classroom set-ups, learn strategies for interacting with children and meeting their needs while wearing masks, and test changes to our meal service, which has changed from family-style to individually plated meals.

“It has helped us to flush out all the kinks with our check-in and -out procedures and learn just how time-consuming this process is, even with just 12 to 16 kids,” said Angela Liegghio, Oakland Family Services’ early childhood education program coordinator. “It has provided an opportunity to get feedback from families, and we are receiving weekly feedback from the teachers to help adjust and make necessary programmatic changes for the fall.”

Plans for fall

For now, while anticipating more guidance from the Michigan Department of Education, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Oakland Schools, Oakland Family Services is anticipating a potential late start to preschool, with tuition-based childcare available until preschool begins. We are exploring both in-person and virtual learning.

Physical distancing will be key in any plan. While it may seem like having fewer children onsite would require fewer staff members, it actually requires more. Liegghio said additional staff is needed to support extra cleaning measures and handle any need for teacher coverage if different modes of instruction exist. The centers will explore adding support staff to help with food service, which will look different under COVID-19 guidelines.

Rising costs

Operating costs of our Children’s Learning Centers are multiplying given the need for extra staff, personal protective equipment and supplies. Extra cleaning is a major expense. All bathrooms, common areas and classrooms are cleaned three times per day, and a cleaning company comes in nightly to do deeper cleaning.

“I would say we are using double the amount of gloves, cleaner, etc. as we would in typical circumstances,” Liegghio said. “Also, we have made classroom and programming changes, like making each child their own art bin. The cost per art bin is $16.55. In the fall, we plan to use disposable plates, cups, etc. for meal service — this will be a pretty significant cost.”

Though expenses are growing, our Children’s Learning Centers remain committed to keeping tuition rates low to ensure that families in the communities we serve have access to affordable, high-quality programming. The state-funded Great Start Readiness Program, which provides free preschool to qualifying 4-year-olds, has not seen a per-pupil funding increase since 2014, but Liegghio said costs of staff salary and benefits, building and maintenance expenses, materials and cleaning supplies have all increased exponentially.

We are hopeful that donor support can help bridge some of the gaps for our Children’s Learning Centers.

“Extra funding would help us to be able to provide children with materials to take home and have available at home to learn during potential periods of virtual learning,” Liegghio said. “Extra funding will help to provide families who do not have access to technology the ability to have their children participate in any virtual, continued learning at home.”

If you would like to make a donation to our Children’s Learning Centers for National Nonprofit Day, please visit our Facebook page or visit https://bit.ly/supportCLCs.

To learn more about the precautions Oakland Family Services is taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19, click here. To register your preschooler for the 2020-21 school year, click here or email ofsclc@ofsfamily.org.