A local school’s crusade to provide daycare for the Yankton community has expanded to include infant daycare as well.
A ribbon cutting Friday at Sacred Heart School’s (SHS) “Crusader Care” daycare marked the completion of the facility’s remodel and the addition of a room specifically for children ages 0-2 years old.
Beginning Monday, Crusader Care will open its doors for the summer with daycare for up to 60 children. School officials said they hope to more than double that number over time.
“We will have ten 0-2 year olds, so there is a variety of ages in that (age group),” Laura Haberman, Sacred Heart School principal, told the Press & Dakotan. “Then, we have twenty 3-4 year olds and thirty 5-12 year olds.
The dream of opening a daycare at Sacred Heart School is over a decade old and started with recognizing the needs of the students and their families, she said.
“We found it to be difficult for our families to travel and transport their kids to the half-day preschools, half-day Junior Ks,” Haberman said. “That’s where this dream really was developed, and the teachers and staff brought it all together.”
When asked, Sacred Heart School’s families said they wanted the daycare open to the entire Yankton community, she said.
Haberman also thanked the South Dakota Department of Social Services, who partly funded the project through a grant program.
Last year, Gov. Kristi Noem approved $12.5 million in federal grant money through the American Rescue Plan specifically for the expansion and startup of new childcare facilities in the state.
Managed by the state Department of Social Services (DSS), the grants help qualifying facilities with various needs, including items required to meet state licensing requirements, classroom furniture, payroll and benefit expenses and insurance.
The total grant amount awarded to SHS for its startup daycare facility was $332,000.
“We had a couple of rooms that we were able to transform,” Haberman said. “Sanford has done a lot in helping structure the classrooms into daycare rooms. And we hope to care for more children over the years.”
Attendees at Friday’s event were given a tour of the updated facility, which includes the gym for K-5 aged children to receive daycare, a classroom for 3- to 5-year-olds and the new infant and toddler room.
“A lot of the developmental toys in (these rooms) are from the grant,” she said. “Also, we received a lot of items from Mount Marty’s daycare when they closed a couple of years ago.”
The remodel also included the installation of a family restroom easily accessible from the infant-care room, Haberman said.
“The startup grant from the Department of Social Services really enabled us to make the changes that we needed to make, like fencing, and for our 5-year-olds and under, adding the number of restrooms that were needed for our kids,” she said.
Currently, there are approximately 2.7 children in Yankton for every daycare slot available, according to a recent study — a statistic that was mentioned several times during the tour.
This new daycare helps a lot, Nancy Wenande, CEO of Yankton Thrive, told the Press & Dakotan.
“To have another 60 spots filled with a variety of age groups helps make an impact, but it certainly does not solve the problem,” said Wenande, who was on hand for Friday’s ribbon cutting. “We still have opportunity for other daycares to expand or to start up to help meet all of the community needs.”
Currently, there are other conversations happening regarding startup daycares, including one with Celebrate Community Church’s pastor Jeff Todd to open a daycare in the Yankton Meridian District’s former Ace Hardware building.
“They’re going to have 10 children under the age of 2 that they’re going to be able to serve down there, as well,” she said. “Are there other opportunities within the other churches here in the Yankton community? Should there be grant funding or other opportunities, would they be able to help as well? Every little bit matters.”
Wenande encouraged anyone even considering doing a daycare, whether in a home or in a facility, registered or unregistered, to reach out to the DSS and see what assistance is available.
Meanwhile, school officials at Sacred Heart want Crusader Care to keep growing.
“Futuristically speaking, we don’t want to just have a daycare and two rooms, because we have waiting lists 20-30 people long already, and it’s hard to turn away those families with infants,” Haberman said. “We want it to expand, and I think with the help of God and (pastor) Father Tom Anderson, maybe we can make that happen.”
