ROCDC continues to thrive

The Red Oak Child Development Center is heading into its third year of operation and continues to keep on growing.
The facility opened its doors in August 2020 with licensing for 75 kids, but that number soon started growing. Director Jacque Howell said since that opening, the facility has continued to work out ways to boost its enrollment.
“When we opened, we thought things would be slow, and it would take time to fill our classrooms. That was not the case. Within a few months of our opening, we were redoing some of our rooms and changing our licensing to add to our enrollment due to demand, because shortly after opening, we were already full,” Howell said. “We initially increased our enrollment to 125, and then earlier this year, we had to up it again and now we’re licensed for 145 kids, and even then we have very few spots available. Our current enrollment is at 135 kids. Sometimes it’s scary to think about what families were doing before we opened our doors.”
When they first opened, Howell said they never realized how big the center was going to get, nor that it would possibly need to keep getting bigger.
“I was an in-home child care provider, and I knew that the need was there. I was, and still am, passionate about making childcare more affordable and providing more of it, but never in a million years did I think we’d grow this fast, or that I would be overseeing this many kids and staff, but it’s an awesome problem to have,” Howell stated.
Currently, around 25 kids are on the waiting list for the center. In order to keep upping the enrollment, Howell said the facility has been doing lots of renovations to expand and create new space.
“We started out with four classrooms, and in May of 2022, we brought our total rooms to eight. Thankfully, we’ve gotten a lot of grant dollars that have paid for all the classrooms, updated the gym, the bathrooms, and the furnishings. We’ve been able to secure hundreds of thousands of dollars of grant funds to be able to do all these renovations, which has been wonderful,” Howell commented.
While all the funding has been a big help, now they’re out of available space to expand to, and Howell said they could afford to expand further.
 “Each month can be very different. When we first opened, we had a need to take in more infants to our enrollment, so we have two infant rooms. Then it moved to needing two rooms for our one-year-olds, so we have two of those rooms in addition to our two infant rooms,” said Howell. “This summer, we realized we had a need to expand space for our school-aged children. This year, we were at capacity for our school-aged children. It goes to show that the demand changes year to year. We’re anticipating when school starts up, the two-year-old room will get super full. Hopefully someday, we can get two rooms for each grade level we serve. In the immediate future, my goal would be to add a school-aged room for the kids we have.”
Even though available space is pretty much taken, Howell said they are still discussing options through a partnership with Building Crafts, and Jeff Soe, and Daric O’Neal with Alley Poyner Maccietto Arcitecture.
“I work with Jeff Soe quite a bit, and Daric O’Neal has done a big layout for us. We have an idea of how to expand, and are working towards that, but it is simply a matter of getting the grant funding. We also have a good partnership with the Red Oak School District which allows us to keep going so strong,” Howell explained.  “Daric O’Neal’s layout works from the inside, and allows us to utilize what is in the building already, that could maybe be repurposed in a different way, and potentially adding to the building out towards the playground area. So we know we need to expand, we’re just waiting to get the funds we need.”
Another snag in expansion is that most of the grant funds they have received have been for renovating rooms, but many of them don’t allow for modifications of the physical structure. Other available funds would require the center to partner with local businesses, but then the business would have to apply for the funds, rather than the center, which slows up the process and is making it harder to secure the necessary funding needs. Renovations would also require approval from the Red Oak School Board.
Assistant director Tasha Vestal said the center was very important for the development of children in their formative years.
 “There are studies that say the first five years are the most important years in a child’s life for brain development. When you think about it, they’re not going into the school district until they’re four, so they’re only getting one year for that type of development once they get to school age,” Vestal stated.
Howell added each of the rooms does lesson planning and those lessons are reviewed and approved by Vestal. In the early years, the focus is mainly on playing and learning routines, which is very important. Another plus for the facility is that it isn’t facing the staff shortages plaguing area school districts.
“When we have the perfect amount of staff for ratio, we consider ourselves understaffed. Each one of our rooms only needs two employees, and we have three in each room, just so they can get that necessary attention. In our one-year-old room, where the kids are learning to communicate and play with their friends, you need those extra hands to make sure they’re getting exactly what they need,” advised Howell.
Currently, they have 32 staff members, and a third candidate was in line to make the total 33. Another way the center keeps its staffing numbers from being short, Vestal said, is that the facility is always hiring.
“We never stop, so that we avoid any potential shortfalls. If we have a great candidate, but we don’t need them right at the moment, we’ll still take them and find a place for them so they can be an extra person and take over if one of the staff decides to leave us,” said Vestal.
Currently, the facility has a level two Quality Rating Improvement System, or a QRS. That system will be known starting this year as Iowa Quality for Kids, and as the center moves into its third year, Howell said they are working towards a level three rating in the new IQ4K.
“It requires much more additional training and will require approval for some overtime, since our staff is scheduled 40 hours a week in the classroom, and that doesn’t leave much spare time for training. Still, everyone is wanting us to get up to that four or five rating, which will continue to require a lot of training. Also, the higher the rating the more funding we’ll be eligible for. I really think it’s possible, and I think there will be 100% support for us to get all of the required trainings,” Howell commented.
Also, Howell said the center will continue to be looking at ways to keep expanding.
“If and when we do an expansion, it would take our licensing to 175 total kids. That’s a number that I’d feel comfortable with. That number won’t overwork the staff, and I think if we expand beyond an enrollment of 175 kids, it might require a second director and assistant director.  So 175 kids total is the goal,” Howell said.
Howell expressed her appreciation for all the support the facility received from the Red Oak School District and the school board.
“We are so grateful for their support, because without them, who knows if this ever would have been a go. They’re completely supportive, and we share a lot of stuff with them,” advised Howell.