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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Step Up Childcare in the Spotlight

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
    A local business will be featured on a national television show Sept. 28.
    The PBS program "A Place of Our Own" will feature Mary Dammann's business, Step Up Childcare and Preschool off N.M. 217.
    Step Up provides day care and education for pre-kindergarten children and also offers after-school programs. About 20 children are currently enrolled.
    "A Place of Our Own" airs in English at 1 p.m. and again in Spanish at 1:30 p.m. on KNME. Each week, the television program features innovative child care businesses throughout the nation.
    In addition to the half-hour television program, Dammann and 17 other licensed home care providers across the nation that were featured on the program will be flown to Washington, D.C., for an honorary celebration.
    Dammann said it's a great honor for what she calls a "tough business."
    "From a business standpoint, this isn't something you should go into to make money," said Dammann, who has run her business for 27 years.
    One of the issues day care providers face is coping with an inequity in payments from families who pay their own way and those who receive state assistance. Dammann said the pay from state programs often falls short of Step Up's normal rates.
    "We have to accept what they pay," she said.
    The ratio of families that use state funding to families that pay for the service themselves is critical, Dammann said. She said she hopes for a ratio of one state-funded child to four private payers, but has no control over it.
    The New Mexico and the National Associations for the Education of Young Children are trying to change the system, she said.
    "We're trying to come together so we can get paid better rates," said Dammann.
    Dammann explained why she feels day care is so important.
    "There's no doubt about what we do ... we're raising kids," Dammann said. "Kids are here long hours every day and that's important, to have them in a safe, qualified facility and a place that they can have fun, too."
    Because the business is run from her home, she said, she is classified as a licensed home care provider. Although 20 children are enrolled, she can only schedule care for up to 12 children at one time. She said she has to turn potential clients away because of that limitation.
    She said the demand for her service is especially great regarding infants.
    "There's nobody taking infants out here," she said.
    Dammann said she is in the process of expanding her business to fill the growing need for child care in the area.
    Last year, Dammann was approved for a $500,000 loan with a 4.3 percent interest rate from U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Program. The program also provided an additional $86,000 grant.
    Dammann planned to use the money to purchase and build a facility on nine acres just north of her current location.
    The expansion will allow her to attain a business license to serve up to 46 children at one time after phase one of construction, and up to 70 after a second structure is built in phase two.
    The money has not yet come through, but Dammann said the funding might arrive soon. In the meantime, Dammann purchased the property through an interim loan and is starting to make payments.
    When the money comes through and she can build a facility, she also plans to have a bird aviary, build bat houses, and keep mini-horses and donkeys on the property.
    "We want to do some really neat environmental (education) things," she said.
    Step Up also provides a service to families that have recently moved into the area, Dammann said.
    She works with the Department of Labor and has helped people to find jobs as well as providing information on social services and other government services.
    For more information on the show, visit www.aplaceofourown.org.