The mission of the Early Childhood Care and Education program, administered by the Archuleta County Education Center, is to increase the number of children receiving early childhood care and education services in Archuleta County that are both affordable and high quality.
— From the December 2018 funding request submitted by the Ed Center to our two local governments
Project Coordinator Jan Santopietro isn’t typically one of the local taxpayers who addresses the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners — or the Pagosa Springs Town Council — during the public comment section at the beginning of their regular meetings.
More typically, Ms. Santopietro would be making a brief presentation later on in the meeting, during an agenda item where her organization was receiving a financial allocation to support the Early Childhood Care and Education Program, and she would be thanking the Commissioners, or the Town Council, for their support.
These are not typical times, apparently.
Both the BOCC and the Town Council, at their December 4 regular meetings, each allocated $35,000 to support a new childcare center near the airport. That financial subsidy had been essentially assured a year ago, in 2017, when the BOCC and Town Council each earmarked $100,000 in their 2018 budgets for the support of the ECCE program.
Before the location of a new center had ever been announced. Before we even knew that a new center would be proposed.
But a similar amount — a total of $200,000 in local government support — does not currently appear in the 2019 budgets of these two governments. At the very moment the ECCE program is beginning the remodel of a new facility, the government support for the project is drying up?
Typically, most of us dissidents — a handful of critics who regularly address the BOCC or the Town Council at public meetings — step up to the microphone without a planned speech. Typically, we shoot from the hip, so to speak. Like the cowboys that we are.
Ms. Santopietro is not your typical dissident. She arrived at the podium, on Tuesday December 4, with a carefully worded appeal. Here’s Ms. Santopietro, speaking to the Board of County Commissioners on behalf of the Ed Center:
“So I want to announce that the Archuleta County Education Center has selected a name for Archuleta County’s newest early childhood center. It is ‘Wings Early Childhood Center.’ And we’re thrilled to be moving forward with that, as well as the renovation of the building in 2018.”
Here are a couple of photos I shot last summer of the proposed childcare facility — formerly the Greenhouse Restaurant, before it went bankrupt in the late 1990s:
The name, Wings, could be seen as a nod to the fact that the new center is located directly adjacent to the Archuleta County Airport runway, and the fact that the teachers and students will be treated to the occasional sound of private jets taking off and landing.
Ms. Santopietro continued:
“I understand that the failure of the [ County’s 1A] ballot measure is affecting the County’s bottom line, and it’s necessary for the commissioners to make some really tough choices for the 2019 budget.
“Because you’ve committed and re-committed public funds in the past, I ask that you consider allocating $25,000 for the Early Childhood Care and Education Program in the 2019 budget.”
A few hours later, Ms. Santopietro would deliver essentially the same speech to the Town Council, thus making the total ‘ask’ $50,000.
Ms. Santopietro:
“The money you provided in 2018 has generated a 4-to-1 return on your investment. I ask that you allow us to open the doors and become self-sustaining before making the decision to cut financial support for one of your strategic priorities.”
Yes, early childhood care and education did seem like a community priority in 2017, when the Town and County each approved their 2018 budgets. We knew that our community had many needs that were crying out for attention. A lack of affordable housing, and people living in tents and camper trucks. Low wage jobs. Roads and government buildings suffering from deferred maintenance issues. Abandoned government buildings. Suburban sprawl. Mediocre test scores from our high school students. Lack of broadband internet access in some neighborhoods — or any internet access at all, for that matter.
And parents of small children, unable to work due to a lack of affordable childcare options. And ‘Now Hiring” signs all around town.
Many community needs. Crying out for our attention.
It seemed like, for a moment back in 2017, our two local governments were making a unified effort to help address three of the more crucial community needs: childcare, affordable housing, and broadband access.
But it was just a tease, apparently. The real crucial issue for the BOCC was their abandoned jail, and their inability to put an acceptable plan in front of the voters.
Ms. Santopietro:
“For your information, the Ed Center has created a five-year strategy, and our mission for Year One — 2018 — is implementation. So we want to open ‘Wings’ in the fall of 2019 for toddlers and preschoolers. In order to open the doors, we’re looking for financial support of $25,000 from the Commissioners for start-up costs.
“This is a one-time ask that will once again be a collaborative effort between public and private contributions. The remaining years [in the strategic plan] are focused on expansion, affordability and quality, as always.
“We need to focus on children from birth up to Kindergarten. According to our 2017 study, the greatest need is for infants and toddlers. We want to establish an early childhood council. A cooperative partnership of all the providers in Archuleta County is paramount. We want to establish tuition assistance and scholarship programs to guard against the ‘Cliff Effect.’”
While the wages paid to American workers continues the pattern of stagnation that began in the early 1970s, even as housing and the cost of living in general has continued to spiral upwards, more and more families have found it financially necessary to have both parents working full-time. That’s less of a challenge once all the children are enrolled in our tax-funded public schools, around the age of 5.
But while the children are still too young for public school? Can a typical working class family — or single parent — truly afford childcare for their infant or toddler?
While paying off student loans, perhaps? And paying $1,500 a month for rent?
The ‘Cliff Effect’ refers to a working parent or family that earns too little to afford childcare, but too much to qualify for federal or state assistance. That’s an effect the Ed Center would like to guard against.
Let’s ask the question that Ms. Santopietro may have been unwilling to ask publicly. Is a huge, $14 million jail really our key community need, in 2019?
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.