Spencer infant care center prepares to open

By Valorie Brecht The Spencer School District is preparing to open its Launch Pad Infant Care Center, for children ages 6 weeks to 3 years of age. The opening date is planned for April 8.

“Things are going very well. We have some electrical work that needs to be finished up and then we will hook up the wifi. We also have some phones to install,” said District Administrator Mike Endreas at last Wednesday’s school board meeting.

Staff will start April 2, with trainings and room setup that week. Elizabeth Garton is the program director. New hires are Carsee Neitzel, Kylie Smazal, Alyssia Zvolena, Jennifer Klimpke, Sarah Hoogland and Hannah Reckner.

The 3,250-square-foot addition includes a hallway connecting the daycare to the south end of the elementary school, a hallway with cubbies for kids to store their belongings and hooks to hang car seats, an infant room and a toddler room. In between the infant and toddler rooms are several smaller rooms: a food prep area, bathroom, diaper changing room and utility room with a washer and dryer.

The infant room will be for children 6 weeks to 18 months old. Eight infants are registered to be cared for, a full room. The toddler room will be for ages 18 months through 3 years old.

“At last count, we had nine toddlers. We could take as many as 14,” said Endreas.

The Launch Pad will expand the school district’s daycare program, which currently is for ages 3 and up. Once kids age out of the toddler room, they will have the option to graduate to the Rookie Rockets Learning Center, which has educational day programming for 3- and 4-year-olds, along with child care before and after school.

The project also includes a bathroom that can be accessed from the outside for use by kids playing on the playground, and a connecting sidewalk from the addition to the playground.

“Budget-wise, we did some change orders to widen sidewalks and things like that, but there was nothing that came up budget-wise that jumped out at us. So that’s tracking very well. It’s just a matter now, the big holdup will be, if we get all this sloppy snow we’re expecting, they were going to excavate and put dirt and so forth around the building, but that may be a setback there,” said Endreas.

“And we’ll have to wait until the grass gets established because there will be some fencing put up for a play area behind. I also have Stratford Sign doing some proofs for us for signage on the outside of the building. I wanted a clean slate before we looked at it. So I’m working with them to get that squared away too.”

Parents had the opportunity to tour the new addition last Thursday during parent-teacher conferences. Endreas also plans to have the facility open March 30, the morning of the kids’ Easter egg hunt. There will also be a meetand-greet event for parents the week of April 4, during which parents will meet the staff and kids will have the opportunity to view the rooms and see where they will be playing and spending time during the day.

The infant care center is separated from the rest of the building by a set of double doors. People will be required to have a key fob to access the rest of the building. There is a buzz-in system that will be used for families dropping off kids.

The total cost of the project is $1.35 million. “The district received additional allocated FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Association) grant funds in which we met our requirements on, in the amount of $517,000. This (was used), along with the decision by the board to transfer $850,000 over budget last year, which lowered our 2023-24 levy rate this fiscal year as we received additional state aid on that portion,” Endreas wrote in an email.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS