Sandbox childcare center welcomes new co-directors

Emily Gojmerac

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Sandbox has been providing child care services to Taylor County for the past 40+ years.

Now gears have turned and the center has two new co-directors who hope to create an environment that helps to promote a positive impact on children around the area.

Amanda Miskanis and Samantha Hines have teamed up and become co-directors of Sandbox. Miskanis attended Madison Technical College where she attained an Early Childhood Education Credential. She has been working in the field for 14 years.

Hines attended Mid-State Technical College in Wisconsin Rapids and attained an Associates Degree for Early Childhood Education and has been working in child care for the past 20 years.

Miskanis was looking for a job in the teaching field and when she saw that an administrator job was available in the area, she jumped at the chance to apply. Miskanis and Hines have worked together for a number of years at their previous job in Wausau and when Miskanis mentioned the position to Hines, she was just as interested.

Miskanis said “Both Sam and I were looking for the next step in our careers and administrator positions are considered the top tier job for early childhood education.”

Both Miskanis and Hines interviewed for the position of director together where they met with the board. From there, a co-director position was proposed to the board and that idea received a positive response from the board members.

Hines said “We’ve always worked so well together in the past so I thought we would be a great team.”

They both have had administrative roles in their past careers, so they are familiar with some of their job duties, but they are also continuing to learn as they go. They are both from rural communities and enjoy the close-knit feel that Medford gives them.

Even though they have both been in the position for three weeks, they each have high hopes to achieve an established relationship not just amongst staff, who are new as well, and kids, but also families in the community as well.

To get Sandbox off on the right foot and to have a better view within the community, they would like to reassure people in the community that Sandbox is a safe and effective place where they would want to bring their children.

Currently, Sandbox offers care for 2 weeks old-13 years of age and they have 35 children in their program with five classrooms offering classes of early education while providing quality child care. Their goal is to provide a safe, stable and reliable environment for all of the children they work with.

They hope to some day collaborate with the Medford School District to become a satellite location for 4K students and expand their capacity to give themselves room to grow their services to fulfill the needs of this community.

They hope to someday create programs with students for before and after school as well as during the summer.

The mission of the Sand Box Child Care & Preschool is to provide quality child care programs and learning experiences for children in a safe and caring environment, helping them to develop socially, creatively, emotionally, physically and intellectually.

Hines hopes that the relationship that her and Miskanis has created reflects the way that the establishment is run from now and throughout the future.