Carmel schools' on-site child care center gives district a recruiting edge

When Katelyn Taylor found out she was pregnant, her first call wasn’t to her husband, Matt.

Instead, Taylor reached out to Karen Kosoglov, Carmel Clay Schools’ longtime director of child care services.

“Put me on your list,” Taylor said she told Kosoglov.

Taylor, an instructional coach at Cherry Tree Elementary, knew exactly how difficult it would be to enroll her child in the district’s child care center.

At the turn of the century, Carmel Clay Schools invested in child care for its workforce. It’s so popular that their waitlist is through 2024.

The demand for child care in the district mirrors a nationwide need for affordable, convenient child care for educators and a proven way to retain teachers.

Taylor’s daughter, Elliot, was born in 2019. She still wound up on a waitlist, like many who seek the program.

Bringing child care to Carmel Clay Schools

In 1999, Kosoglov was brought in to lead child care services by district leadership who wanted to bring the option to Carmel Clay. She helped grow it from a trailer to two buildings.

Other school districts have options for staff through not-for-profit agencies or care for certain age groups. But Carmel’s model is less common, Kosoglov said.

Edu-care is a private child care program located at Carmel Middle School and Clay Middle School. It serves up to 160 kids at Carmel and 60 kids at Clay.

As of last December, 130 kids were on the waitlist. It’s a persistent interest, Kosoglov said.

Children as young as 6 weeks old can join the child care center and stay until they are 5 years old, or kindergarten-age.

Many of them will later enter the Carmel Clay School system, which is another benefit, Taylor said. Her second child, Owen, 2, needs a speech therapist and he can get that service once a week at Edu-care.

Taylor said she often recruits for Carmel schools and shares all she can with prospective teachers, including the advantages of Edu-care.

“We do have more resources than a private or nonprofit or profit center,” Kosoglov said. "When we have a behavioral problem or we have a question, there's some resources.”

The program is less expensive for parents than many private centers. Taylor said private care for Elliot was expensive while she was on Edu-care's waitlist. At the district-run center, infant care is $270 per week while care for 3 to 5 year olds is $196 weekly.

The children are grouped by age and follow Frog Street pathways, an early childhood education curriculum. They focus on development with many hands-on activities, like splashing in water tables and paper cutting for mosaics.

The program touches all aspects of education for other students to benefit. High and middle school students can visit and assist in Edu-care programs, said Robin Wood, lead teacher at Clay Edu-care.

Location, location, location

What sets Edu-care apart? Its location, Wood and Kosoglov said.

Parents can join their children on a break or a mother could breastfeed her child in between classes, if needed.

“It's very appealing to have something that's on site for your child that either you can pop in and see or maybe we're out walking around,” Wood said.

Fervency for spots in Edu-care had school district leaders considering ways to foster growth, but there's no solid expansion plan yet.

Edu-care is an example of district leaders thinking about their workforce and understanding working parents, which Taylor appreciates as a teacher in Carmel Clay, she said.

"This is not something that's common in districts like it is not common to provide child care at least in the education world," Taylor said. "I've never really heard of it. I feel like it shows that they value teachers and that they are willing to provide something that they know is hard to come by."

Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this story misstated that Carmel High School was one of the locations for Edu-care. Carmel Middle School is the other location.

Contact the reporter at rfradette@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Carmel Clay Schools' Edu-care gives district a recruiting edge