Resurrection Lutheran Church in Newport News, Virginia, opens $7 million childcare center

Resurrection Lutheran Church on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard in Newport News held a ribbon cutting on Aug. 28 for its new child development center. The $7 million center will be able to enroll 250 children, including infants. According to the source, the church’s new school is the largest licensed childcare center in Southeastern Virginia.

Melanie Mesick, director of the childcare center and school, said the building is everything she expected. She said it would not fully come to life until its classrooms are full and its hallways are noisy. “It’s beautiful and clean and spotless today, and it’s going to stay like that for one day,” she said at the ribbon cutting.

The center will increase the program’s enrollment capacity to 250 infants and pre-k toddlers, more than double the church’s current cap. It will also offer before- and after-school programming for elementary students. The center is fully licensed and staffed. It will open after Labor Day to currently enrolled students and is expected to operate at full capacity by November.

The project is intended to address a persistent and growing community need: affordable childcare. Child Care Aware of Virginia, an advocacy group that refers people to childcare resources, estimates that all of the region’s licensed childcare programs combined, including centers, preschools and family childcare homes, still leave nearly 33,000 children under 6 with working parents without a seat. Jane Elyse Glasgow, executive director of Minus 9 to 5 at Old Dominion University, an initiative that connects families with resources, said that figure is the best-case scenario. Because childcare centers must be fully staffed to operate at full capacity, she said, the actual deficit across Hampton Roads is likely much larger. “We know that there are classrooms in many of our centers that are not open because they just can’t get the workforce in there,” she said.

When families cannot find reliable childcare, the source reports, a parent may stop working or reduce their hours. This can mean lost financial stability, lost wages and stunted career advancement for families, as well as staffing challenges for local businesses. Glasgow said the shortage could also be a barrier to economic growth. “It is definitely a factor when looking at business attraction or expansion, because without childcare, (you) can’t get the workforce in there, and so we know that there are fewer people in the workforce than would like to be because of childcare,” she said.

The new center has three infant rooms, and the school could convert some toddler rooms to infant care in the future if needed. Glasgow said infant care is one of the biggest needs in Hampton Roads and one of the most expensive services for providers to offer. “It costs me more to provide childcare for infants than toddlers, because I have to have more staff to take care of them than I do for, say, a three-year-old,” she said, adding that the state requires specific teacher-student ratios for different age groups. “The business model for childcare is very slim.”

Mesick said affordability is another priority for the expanded school. Some families pay entirely out of pocket, she said, while others are fully or partially subsidized. “We don’t ever want price to be something that stops a family from coming,” Mesick said. “It should be accessible to everyone. We don’t interview our families. We accept all children and give them a try because all kids deserve that.” Her approach of welcoming every child without first interviewing families reflects hospitality to the young and vulnerable (Matthew 25:35).

Lillian Palmbach, a Hampton Roads resident who works in the aerospace industry, said she did not understand how few options existed in the region until she had her son about a year ago. When she did find options, she said, the cost was staggering. Child Care Aware of Virginia estimates the average cost of full-time care for infants up to 16 weeks old is a little more than $1,055 a month in the seven cities of Hampton Roads. For those earning the region’s median personal income of $48,271, that amounts to more than a quarter of their monthly paycheck.

Source: Read the original report