WOODSTOCK — The town selectboard has approved $330,000 in grants intended to create up to 79 new child care and after-school spots for the town’s residents and workers.
Proposed by Woodstock’s Economic Development Commission, which is funded through the town’s 1% local options tax on meals, rooms and alcohol, the grants will support four different local child care providers as they look to expand their infrastructure and hire additional staff.
Todd Ulman, who leads the commission’s child care work group, called the investment, which is about $4,200 per child, a “no brainer.”
According to Ulman, the work group surveyed both Woodstock residents and people employed in Woodstock to understand the town’s child care capacity, finding that the shortage had caused parents to leave the workforce or to leave Woodstock entirely.
“This is an emergency,” Ulman said. “We asked ourselves, ‘How can we help our community right now?’”
Statewide, a lack of child care has become a perpetual political issue. Legislators in Montpelier have pledged to make child care a top priority this session, and last week, a long-anticipated report found that a child care overhaul in Vermont could cost up to $279 million.
In Woodstock, a report from the child care work group found that local child care providers had waitlists up to 80 kids, and that the local schools had cut after-school programming due to lack of staff. In a survey, nearly half of the 104 respondents indicated that at least one parent in their family had partially left the workforce to take care of their children.
Each of the child care businesses submitted detailed applications to the town, explaining how the grant money would be used, and outlining the financial viability of the business.
Woodstock Christian Child Care will receive $60,000 to expand into an additional classroom and purchase play materials, which it expects will create 20 new after-care slots.
Rainbow Playschool will receive $140,000 to hire additional teachers and increase wages, which should create 17 to 21 new day program slots.
The Community Campus will receive $30,000 to hire additional staff and provide more health care benefits in a move expected to create 14 new after-school slots.
The Woodstock Selectboard also intends to give a $100,000 grant to Bridgewater Community Childcare in bordering Bridgewater, but the board wanted to receive a legal opinion ensuring it’s acceptable to give money to a business in a neighboring town. Keri Cole, a selectboard member, encouraged her colleagues to vote to approve Bridgewater’s funding contingent on the legality of the move, which the board did.
According to grant application documents provided by Bridgewater Community Childcare, as of November, 69% of the business’s students live in Woodstock, and an additional 23% have parents employed in Woodstock.
The town’s grants are the largest package ever approved by the economic development commission, Ulman said. Though the money will make a dent in the town’s need, the commission expects the changes to be only a Band-Aid for what is likely a much larger issue.
Child care providers are “working 70 hours a week taking care of everyone’s children,” Ulman said. “They’re exhausted.”
According to Ulman, the grant funding will be disbursed incrementally as the providers demonstrate they’ve expanded capacity. He encouraged other towns to reach out to Woodstock’s economic development commission if they’re curious about undertaking similar projects, just as the commission has often relied on guidance from other communities about local initiatives.
“We’re just lucky to live in a town where people want to put their time and efforts into making the community better for everyone,” he said. “We have to be there for each other.”