Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 27, 1994 TAG: 9402250365
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Kathleen Wilson STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
When parents come to see Sandy Freeman, their first question is, "Why does it cost so much?"
Freeman is executive director of Country Bear Day School in Roanoke County. The question parents generally ask when they leave is, "How do you manage to keep it running for so little?"
Despite its upscale interior - furnished with Oriental-design rugs and white Victorian cribs - Country Bear contends it is competitively priced for a service that many families regard as an expensive necessity. The center's rates are: $125 a week for infants; $75 a week for preschoolers; and $45 a week for after-school care of older children up to the age of 12. The center awards 10 scholarships a year for families that cannot its rates.
There are 33 employees - most are professionals holding college degrees - to care for 145 children during the day and 35 who arrive after school.
The center is open 60 hours a week.
"People don't go into this business for the money," Freeman said. "For as many hours as we work, it factors out many weeks that we're only being paid $2 an hour."
According to statistics compiled by two nonprofit organizations - the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., and Catalyst in New York City - there are 6.5 million children in the United States who routinely are cared for by someone other than their parents because their mothers are employed.
The national median annual cost is $3,564 per child.
That makes child care a $2.3 billion service industry.
And it is a business where demand grows at an astronomical rate, which supply seems forever unable to meet.
A census conducted by the Virginia Council on Child Day Care and Early Childhood Programs - a Richmond-based nonprofit organization - reveals that while there are 678,730 children younger than 13 of working mothers, Virginia's licensed child-care centers only have room for 100,000 children.
The huge difference between those numbers means many infants and children likely are cared for in unlicensed centers and private homes. For example, day care for eight children can be provided within a home without a license in Virginia, provided no more than four of the children are younger than 2.
Of the nearly 40 Roanoke child-care centers licensed by the state, all have waiting lists.
At Country Bear, that list includes two sets of parents who have signed up based on when they estimate they will conceive.
A 3,000-square-foot expansion is under way and will make room for more children, as well as offering a full-size gym, computer room and stage.
Before Greenvale Nursery School moved to Westwood Boulevard in Northwest Roanoke, it was housed in the building on Patterson Avenue now occupied by Villa Sorrento Restaurant.
"When I look at the photos in our scrapbook, it reminds me of the poor old woman who lived in the shoe," said Sandra Carroll, executive director of Greenvale Nursery School.
The school is staffed by 49 employees who care for 270 children, and Carroll can greet almost every child by name.
Greenvale - and its neighbor, the Northwest Child Development Center - are the only two centers in the Roanoke Valley that offer child care on a sliding fee scale.
At Greenvale, fees range from free to $91 a week. The average parent pays $38.50 a week per child.
The rooms are filled with tiny cots, tiny chairs and tiny tableware for tiny people who eat cinnamon toast and 'Nilla Wafers.
A room of 11 toddlers is staffed by four adults. And like the other rooms throughout the school, every room includes a volunteer "grandma."
"She's there to make sure that every child can have a hand held or get a hug," Carroll explained.
It's that individual attention that Greenvale is proud of.
"You can't give quality care by putting one person with 20 3-year-olds," Carroll said.
When 16-month-old Josh enrolled at Greenvale, he was unable to walk without holding on. He also was withdrawn, unable to speak and lacking certain social skills other children his age had already accomplished.
Today, when the classroom door opens, his face breaks into a huge grin, he waves and chirps "Hi!"
He will soon move out of the room, leaving the other four occupants behind, now that he has progressed.
Carroll credits such success stories to the quality of her staff. Yet, like many other child-care providers, she constantly battles high turnover rates.
"A qualified employee deserves compensation," she said.
Many of her staff are trained teachers who have not found permanent positions in the public school system, where they would make more than the minimum wage they are paid at Greenvale.
"Our employees help subsidize this center by working for less," Carroll said.
Many Roanoke Valley businesses subsidize the center in a variety of creative ways, ranging from BellSouth Communication Systems' donation of a computer and Lewis-Gale Clinic's donation of a big playhouse one of its own Honeytree Early Learning Centers had outgrown to auto mechanics who retread tricycle tires.
Students from North Cross School come in regularly to tutor Greenvale children. Basketball players from Roanoke College drop by to talk about practice and discipline.
The community support is recognition of Greenvale's special status among the area's child-care centers. Greenvale was founded in 1934 by Salem native Bertie Clinevell and was a progressive project for its time.
Helping to found Greenvale was the Junior League of Roanoke Valley Inc., a community service organization, which is making child care the focus of its efforts for the next three to five years.
The league plans to work with existing operations to enhance the region's day-care system, making it more affordable and accessible.
Like other centers, there's basically no weather condition conceivable that would prevent Greenvale from opening. Even during this winter's severe cold and ice, which forced area schools and many businesses to shut, child-care centers kept their regular hours.
"We break our necks to get here, so our parents can be at work," said Country Bear's Freeman.
"Think of it: During the ice storm, we were here for parents who worked at Apco. Because of us, they were able to help the rest of the community.
"If you can't be at home and live like the Waltons - and who can? - we're here."
Some parents don't understand why they still have to pay for days a child might be out sick or on vacation.
Freeman explains that even when the child isn't there, the teachers, nurses and food preparation staff are there and need to be paid.
While charging $125 a week for infant care sounds like a lot, Freeman says that if she were able to pay her employees what a teacher makes in a public school, the fee would be four times higher.
"The people who suffer aren't the children or the parents," she said. "It's the teacher who works for so little."
by CNB