Childcare center to aid working families after Holiday Farm Fires

Finding childcare has been a longtime challenge for working parents in Blue River and the Holiday Farm Fire made the need more dire. But starting next week, the McKenzie School District's childcare center promises reliable, accessible childcare for families.

The center officially opens April 3, but held an open house March 23, inviting community members, government officials, parents and children to check out the space.

"After the fire, when families started talking about whether or not they would stay or go, a lot of the obstacles and barriers was childcare," said Lacey Joy, special programs coordinator for McKenzie School District. "They couldn't see staying up here and getting back to work, especially after COVID and everything, without some kind of adequate, reliable childcare."

The Little Eagles Childcare Center is the first and only of its kind in the Blue River/McKenzie Bridge area. McKenzie superintendent Lane Tompkins said it's the only licensed childcare center between Thurston and Sisters − a 67-mile stretch.

McKenzie School District, which consists of several buildings including an elementary and middle/high school, sits on top of a hill and was one of the few buildings that survived the flames in the fall of 2020. Since then, it has served as a haven as the community rebuilds.

The district has received waves of donations and funding to support the community, and. oy said that without the outpouring, the childcare center would not have been possible.

"I told him (Tompkins) probably 15 years ago, that this was something we need, but it was never within reach," Joy said. "It just became really evident that that's something that we needed to do and pursue. Of all the bad things the fire did, providing us opportunities was one thing it did well."

Building Little Eagles

The idea for childcare services began to take form in early 2022. When Joy saw an opportunity to transform a space in one of the district's newly repaired gymnasiums, she said she started looking for funding.

The space that now houses Little Eagles was a temporary food pantry that was open twice a month for the community after the fire. Joy said the district decided the food pantry wasn't the best use of the space. It was moved to the local church and the construction for Little Eagles began in late 2022.

"The nice thing about being on campus is we had the support of the superintendent, mental health services, nursing, all of that stuff," Joy said. "There's a lot of oversight with this facility. We have three administrators on site, we have licensed mental health care providers, so they feel safe here. Nothing against just dropping kids off at home centers, but it's different."

The bulk of Little Eagles' funding came from about $420,000 in philanthropic donations including the Ford Family Foundation, Oregon Community Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, United Way of Lane County, Roundhouse Foundation and the John and Ginger Niemeyer Foundation, she said.

Lane County has awarded two grants totaling $700,000 to McKenzie School District, including $200,000 awarded March 21. These funds originated from a grant the county received during the 2021 legislative session to replace lost property tax revenue due to the 2020 wildfires.

"What we really want is to have families coming back to the community and really populating it," said Lane County Commissioner Heather Buch. "If there's a child care drought here, how can parents go to work to afford a place and move back up here?"

Joy said the $200,000 will be a huge help in giving them cushion room as they're starting out.

"The capital projects were covered by all of that foundation dollars, right to the last dollar to I mean, we just had enough," Joy said. "I was always hoping that more would come through... That money is going to help us, would start us ahead, not behind, and that's really needed for sustainability."

Addressing parent needs

The Little Eagle's capacity is 60 kids, ages 3 months to 6 years. So far, 32 have enrolled.

The cost for full-day service, four days a week, for a month is $1,200. For half-day service, it's $600. Joy said the center also has some flexibility for drop-in services or mini-packages for parents that need more sporadic or short-term services.

Being the only licensed childcare center in the area, Joy said they wanted to make the services accessible while still sustaining its licensed staff and providing them a "decent" wage and benefits as district employees. All five full-time employees hired are working moms with children in the age range the center serves.

"We were able to employ five people who live up here, which is great," Joy said. "They're so lucky because they get to be with their kids all day. Not many moms get that opportunity."

Jessica Marie, director of Little Eagles Childcare Center, has been in childcare for 16 years. She moved to Vida a couple of years ago.

"I figured I would just have to commute to Eugene for work in my field, I didn't think there would be opportunity out here," Marie said.

When she saw chatter online about the Little Eagles, she knew she wanted to apply for a role at the center.

"This is a huge benefit for the community to have this resource," Marie said. "I'm looking forward to connecting with the community and providing resources, helping families understand child development. I'm hoping we'll get high schoolers involved in internships here."

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: McKenzie opens childcare center to aid families after 2020 wildfires