Early child care providers in Durango find themselves in a difficult position: Reliable labor is scarce, safety regulations can be expensive and being a caregiver is grueling work.
Child care professionals say what Durango needs is more facilities and people to run them.
Staffing is the biggest challenge for early childhood centers, said Heather Hawke, executive director of the Early Childhood Council of La Plata County. Among 31 licensed childhood centers and five licensed child care homes across the county, the turnover rate last year was between 30% and 40%, consistent with data collected over the past eight years.
She said 2022 data collected from teachers and caregivers who left their positions last year show that 27% of teachers resigned because they moved out of the community.
Many teachers live in Farmington and are able to find work closer to home. But some work as para-educators for Durango School District 9-R or in a different field where they can earn higher wages, she said.
When considering the landscape of early childhood centers from a bird’s-eye view, there simply aren’t enough centers around to provide care to all of the children who need it, said Becky Malecki, executive director of Riverhouse Children’s Center at 742 Florida Road.
In an email to The Durango Herald, she said only about 60% of the people who need child care are receiving it.
The situation is especially dire for people seeking child care for children ages 6 months to 2½ years, Hawke said. Of 1,241 spaces for children in programs across the county, just 220, or 18%, of spaces are available for children younger than 2.
“Waitlists are pages long, meaning a family has to sometimes wait years to get into a licensed child care center,” Malecki said. “We need more employer-based centers – child care where people work, like they have at Mercy Hospital. We also need centers for county workers, for city workers and for the school district.”
Durango School District offers infant care for employees at Durango High School, and employer-based child care is available at Fort Lewis College and Mercy Hospital through its Mercy Child & Family Center, Hawke said.
The state of Colorado is working to provide child care to more children, Malecki said. On July 1, a universal pre-K child care subsidy program will launch to provide child care for all 4-year-olds. Many 3-year-olds will also be eligible for the program. But it is still difficult to find child care for younger children ages 6 months to 2½ years old.
“We don’t have enough centers. We don’t have enough employees,” she said.
The state needs to subsidize care for the youngest age groups – 6 months to 2 years old, Malecki said.
“We need to keep moving in that direction like every other developed country, and provide subsidized care for the youngest children,” she said.
In January, the Powerhouse Science Center board of directors met with Durango City Council to discuss how the two organizations could possibly work more closely together. The Powerhouse identified toddler and preschool support as a community need not being fully met and expressed interest in providing more support with, among other things, experiential play areas and soft-floor gyms.
Hawke said even organizations that are trying to facilitate 100% enrollment struggle to retain qualified early childhood teachers.
Qualifications for becoming an early childhood teacher or caregiver are not especially stringent. But pay isn’t stellar, either, Malecki said. And while qualifying for the job isn’t too difficult, sticking it out through demanding work duties and low pay isn’t appealing to everyone.
Riverhouse employs about 30 people who earn $16 to $20 an hour, the latter rates reserved for the most experienced staff. Entry-level positions pay less than a livable wage, she said.
Hawke said the state of Colorado requires about 48 hours of preemployment instruction on subjects like safe sleep, mandatory reporting for child abuse, licensing procedures and health and safety regulations, as well as a mandatory background check and fingerprinting. Early childhood teachers must also have six to 10 preliminary college credits depending on the age of children one wants to work with.
The low barrier to entry makes it easy for employees to walk away, leading to high turnover, Malecki said.
“It’s more about the type of person people are,” she said. “We want caring, compassionate, patient people.”
When Riverhouse finds an employee with those qualities, it’s quite rewarding, she said. But the pay still isn’t great.
Early childhood learning is not subsidized like public school, she said. Even though 75% to 80% of an early childhood center’s budget is dedicated to payroll, wages aren’t typically high.
Like any caregiver role, taking care of young children – particularly in the 6 months to 2½ years old range – can be draining. Staff members must document everything from meals, nap times and bowel movements. And the most experienced staff members are needed to care for the youngest, most vulnerable children.
A tight labor market is the No. 1 hurdle for most area early childhood centers, but they face other challenges.
Hawke said many centers in Durango occupy old, historic buildings that aren’t up-to-date with sprinklers, alarms and other fire-suppression systems.
For Riverhouse, which moved into a new two-story building in 2014, it was cheaper to build a brand-new building than to renovate its old facility, Malecki said.
The old facility at 495 Animas View Drive consisted of a 7,500-square-foot, six-bedroom, six-bathroom home built in 1959, she said.
“The size was great, but it needed all new plumbing, sewer system, electrical work, heating system and updated kitchen,” she said. “The walls were leaking, it was overrun with mice and the playground was multi-layers of dirt.”
She isn’t sure what it would have cost to renovate the home, but it would have been “formidable.”
In 2011, Riverhouse’s board of directors started a capital campaign to fund a new facility, the one it occupies today. She said the effort was successful thanks to donations from the community, including from Alpine Bank and BP America; foundations such as the Gates Family Foundation, El Pomar and Ballantine Family Fund; and other organizations such as rotary clubs.
“We have a modern, sunny and efficient building that is a healthy and safe environment for children,” she said. “Riverhouse is celebrating 20 years in Durango and would not still be here if it wasn’t for the parents and staff who have kept this place open through hard financial times, COVID and now a diminished workforce pool.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
