HCS partners with ECTC to offer child care for employees

Hardin County Schools employees will have another option for child care next school year when the school district opens a child care center.

The district has partnered with Elizabethtown Community and Technical College on the center, which will be housed at the College View Campus and North Park Elementary School.

HCS Superintendent Teresa Morgan said it will serve as a lab for ECTC students in the early childhood education program. ECTC students also can take advantage of the child care option.

Providing child care for employees has been a priority for Morgan. She said she mentioned working with ECTC on a child care center in one of her first meetings with Juston Pate, president of the college.

ECTC students majoring in Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education can fulfill required observation hours in the center. It also will be an option for students in the work-study program, Morgan told school board members Thursday.

Morgan said at the board's lunch meeting, Janay Sutton, director of health and family resource services, will oversee the center. The board has not approved a name for it.

"We're extremely excited to expand opportunities for our employees and ECTC students," Sutton said.

Morgan said at an earlier meeting the center won't need money from the school board. The program is expected to pay for itself.

Sutton said the weekly rate for infants, birth to 2 years, is $135. For toddlers, 3 to 5 years, the weekly rate is $120.

"It's a reliable child care program," Sutton said.

Sutton said the center will have about 130 openings at College View, the former site of G.C. Burkhead Elementary School. North Park will have space for about 20 to 22 children.

Applications will open next Wednesday, she said.

"We anticipate that it will fill very quickly," Sutton said, adding the center's staff will watch children from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

It recently was announced the district's program for teenage parents also will move to College View and North Park next school year.

The child care center will be housed in the building at College View where Hardin County Adult Education was located. Adult Education moved to ECTC over winter break.

Morgan said the district is not trying to put other child care providers out of business. She said the number of centers has declined over the last two years, and staff members are having a difficult time finding affordable child care.

"I believe it will have an impact on employee attendance," she said. "A lot of times they are missing because their child care provider is sick."