Newton YMCA finds care for families displaced by impending closure of Imagine Kids

Newton YMCA Childcare Director Serenity Bookout received a phone call last week from a panicked foster parent telling her the Imagine Kids daycare center is closing the day before Thanksgiving, leaving families two weeks to find a new place to take their children. Bookout told the parent she would make room.

Then a while later the phone rang again. And again. And again. Bookout stayed at work late to answer any questions parents might have, knowing this news would be traumatizing for some. For the next two days, she helped find care for as many families as she could in a facility that is already maxed out at 123 kids.

“I didn’t want to say no, so I made some elaborate moves to welcome some more families in, and so far, after two days, we’ve welcomed 23 children,” Bookout said in an interview with Newton News on Nov. 10. “My emails and phones are not stopping yet, so I’m sure that will continue to rise.”

Others were added to the YMCA’s long waiting list, particularly those families with infants and toddlers; Bookout said there are not enough open spaces for those age groups. Those who did manage to secure a spot at the YMCA were often between the ages of 3 and 12, said Newton YMCA CEO Lucas Hughes.

“We made very strategic changes in how those rooms are shaped and formed,” Hughes said, noting Newton YMCA is the largest daycare provider in the city, with the next largest having 55 kids. “We have a transitional room that we’re kind of using for PreK programming, and that’s going to be a new room now.”

Although the facility was full and had reason to turn away those families, staff believed it is the duty of the YMCA to meet the needs of its community.

“As the YMCA, we’re here to help serve the community as best as we can,” Bookout said. “I felt it was my responsibility to help as many families as I could to welcome them into the Y and have a space here where they feel comfortable and safe and call their home. So that’s what I did.”

IMAGINE KIDS STAFFING SHORTAGE, PERSONAL TIME EXPENSE

Families of Imagine Kids were given a two-week notice that the facility would close by Nov. 22. Stan Jensen shares ownership of the building with his wife Teresa. Neither of them live in Newton, and Jensen said that is one of the challenges they face. In his 70s, Jensen doesn’t have the energy like he used to.

“It’s an excellent place I think and we’ve appreciated a lot of the kids,” Jensen said. “My wife goes there quite often and the kids always light up when she comes … But with us personally we’re just getting older. It would be a good place for maybe another daycare that wants to take it over.”

The Jensens say they invested more than $100,000 into the daycare portion of the building, which also holds a hair salon and the Newton school district’s specialized behavior program. Jensen said they are in no way being forced to close or anything like that. The closure, he said, comes down to two things:

“Getting staffing and having enough students,” Jensen said. “Most of our students are state-supported students, so we can’t just raise prices or something like that, even if we really wanted to. The center is pretty much breaking even at this point. We’re certified to take on as many as 97 students.”

By the time Imagine Kids announced it would close, it had about 53 students.

“It’s a good building. We’ve kept it up and improved it considerably. So the building is doing OK and making money, but like I said we’re just mostly getting played out,” Jensen said. “We’re both retired so we don’t have endless money, and we don’t want to continue … We just want to go a different direction.”

Typically, staff pay in the childcare industry is rather low. With costs of everything rapidly inflating over the past few years, it is difficult for some to attract applicants, let alone maintain the employees they have now. Jensen said workers started around $12 per hour.

“We pay as much or probably more than most people in town, but yet it’s still hard to find good staff that will want to do that particular job,” Jensen said. “Taking care of kids is hard work. It takes a special kind of person and you have to have some high energy. Staffing is part of it. All daycares struggle with that.”

Another issue Imagine Kids encountered was trying keep rates for families affordable yet high enough to sustain the business.

Teacher-to-student ratios also complicate matters.

“It’s really tough to have any kind of margin left. As you grow, for instance, the ratio in grade school is one teacher to 15 students. But in newborns, which we have quite a few of them, it’s one-to-four,” Jensen said. “So you just can’t grow one by one. You have to grow by four or 15. Otherwise you lose money fast.”

NEWTON IS A ‘CHILDCARE DESERT’

When the YMCA received frantic phone calls from families worried about what to do next after their daycare announced it was going to close, it only reinforced the reality of childcare struggles in rural communities. Bookout said there are not enough places for children to go, especially younger age groups.

YMCA is one of the few centers that accepts infants and toddlers. But space is very limited, so openings are sparse. Hughes said there about 12 spaces for infants at the YMCA; coupled with another facility in town, there might only be roughly 20 total spaces for infants in a town of more than 15,000 people.

“It’s not enough,” Hughes said. “We’re in a childcare desert. We do not have enough quality programming across the community, but what we do have is we have a flexibility YMCA and a sustainable YMCA. We’re going to be here for the long-term, and we want the community to know that.”

Hughes has long proclaimed Newton as a “childcare desert,” meaning there are too few childcare centers with quality programming to account for the amount of children in the community. In Newton, Hughes said there are about 250 kids in quality PreK programs. Another 1,000 or so are in the K-4 elementary buildings.

“We cannot fulfill that need,” Hughes said. “So that desert just means we need more childcare and we need more quality and trained employees.”

Supplementing the lack of sustainable childcare providers are at-home daycare providers. Of course, they are also limited by space. Some families may resort to watching their kids while working from home, or have family members pitch in. But not every family has access to these options. It puts people in a pinch.

“Because there are not enough supplements, people are staying at home. So now you’re losing workforce due to that,” Hughes said. “The affordability and accessibility are two major things going on in childcare right now. It’s just not there.”

COMMUNITY PARTNER MEETS COMMUNITY NEEDS

Paying for childcare is now more expensive than in-state tuition at the University of Iowa. In the 2021-2022 school year, in-state tuition at Iowa was $9,942. Newton YMCA is more expensive than any other rural facility in the county, but one year in the infant room can cost a little less than $11,000.

“So you’re taking your kid to college twice,” Hughes said. “What kind of burden does that put on a young family coming into the community?”

With the city playing with the idea of removing funding to community partners, Hughes said that almost guarantees the YMCA will have a hard time creating a healthy childcare center. Hughes hopes the city council does decide to back the YMCA and understands the childcare center is helping the community.

Finding staff and paying them a decent wage is also difficult in the world of childcare. Bookout said it is also hard to find training, noting there are very few classes with even fewer spaces available. Staying ahead of those trainings is just one of the many duties Bookout is tasked with.

To maintain staffing, the YMCA has offered a non-wage-related benefit of providing discounts for childcare to its employees. The facility also tries to stay competitive with starting wages at $12 per hour, up to around $14 per hour depending on experience. Hughes lamented it is still not competitive in every industry.

“With slim profit margins and as a non-profit, you just have to make ends meet,” Hughes said.

Bookout anticipates more children from Imagine Kids will find their way to the YMCA. With those increases in kids, she also expects to increase her staffing. Currently, there are about 38 staff members working childcare at the Newton YMCA, about 35 of which are full-time. The community needs every one of them.

“The YMCA, at its grassroots, was built to meet the community needs,” Hughes said. “I believe every YMCA really intentionally tries to do that. Since 2020, the biggest epidemic has really been childcare need. We are fortunate enough to have good people in our community and opportunities to create spaces like this.”