NEWS RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2012 FOR USE: Now CONTACT: Steve Quakenbush
GCCC Entering Partnership With Community Daycare, Inc.
New means for providing child care services to students effective in fall semester
Garden City Community College is initiating a change in child care services for students, involving a partnership with Community Daycare Center, Inc.
Effective with the upcoming fall semester, child care for the children of students will be provided by Community Daycare, rather than on campus. Located at 505 College Drive, the non-profit center is located adjacent to GCCC.
“I see this collaborative effort as a true win-win,” said Dr. Herbert J. Swender, GCCC president. In the arrangements, the center will reserve 10 spots year-round for GCCC students.
The president said Community Daycare’s hours of 6:45 a.m.-6:15 p.m. Monday through Friday will offer approximately two more hours of daily service than GCCC can provide. In addition, he added, Community Daycare operates on a year-round basis, making care available during the summer as well as fall and spring semesters.
Community Daycare, which is governed by a seven-member board of local directors, is licensed for up to 99 children from the age of two week-old infants to five years, and participates in the Kansas Quality Rating and Improvement System. It also participates in the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and already maintains partnerships with the City of Garden City, Russell Child Development Center and other local organizations and businesses.
GCCC has operated the Campus Child Care Center, located in the Penka Building of Practical Arts and Sciences, since 1986. That center, which has been open mid-August through mid-May, is licensed for up to 20 children, age 2.5 years to school age.
“With the need to serve a population like ours,” Swender said, “I believe that extended hours for greater access, larger capacity and a wider range of ages, is definitely the direction we need to be going.”
He added that space presently used for child care could be adapted for expansion of other program areas. The GCCC Cosmetology Program, and the Nursing and Allied Health Program, are also each housed in the Penka Building, and both are experiencing growth as Southwest Kansans seek career education in the health care and salon service fields.
The Campus Child Care Center employs one individual on a full-time basis, and that person will remain on the college staff.
GCCC is presently enrolling students for the fall semester, with classes scheduled to start Aug. 22. Students or potential students with questions about rates or reservations for child care should visit the GCCC Business Office or call 620-275-3236, according to Dee Wigner, executive vice president.
