Granton School District's Community Child Care Center

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021 -- 12:00 PM

The Granton School District’s daycare program continues to fill a need of the Granton Community by providing a place for children.

In our continued interview series, I spoke with Granton’s Interim Administrator James Kuchta and Child Care Director Ladonna Nickel and they discussed the program in more detail.

Mr. Kuchta:  “Today I have with us, Ladonna Nickel who is the Director of GCCC, that is Granton Community Child Care Center.  And I’ll have Ladonna give a little history about herself, her background, and what she’s done for director for a long time here as director.”

Ladonna:  “We started up the childcare program in the school on August 2nd of 2010.  So, we’ve been here about 10.5 years almost.  It basically started just because there wasn’t a place for kids to go and the school wanted to help find a place for kids to go to keep them in our district."

"So, they started the childcare center.  They opened that up and I applied for it.  I had been doing licensed child care in my home for 16 years prior to that.  So, I came here and it’s going very strong.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “Ladonna runs a great childcare center here.  And I know there’s been some moves.  I know you were on the south end of the building and there’s a playground there.  And a couple years ago you got moved to the east end of the building.  How many years were you in the first facility or first end of the building?”

Ladonna:  “We were only up here 3 years, I believe.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “And then the past 7 years in your current rooms?”

Ladonna:  “Right.  We have two rooms.  We have one room that’s for infants that we take 4 weeks up until they turn 2.  And then at 2-years-old they go over to the big kid room.  Which is a mixed age group, but mostly 2 to 4-years-old except before and after school.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “How many families do we serve right now?”

Ladonna:  “For taxes, I just did 44 families.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “That’s a great benefit for the Granton community.  I know there are people that live in the area and staff members that have their kids go here.  It’s a great service that’s provided through our school district and to the community.  I know you work with some state agencies.  Can you talk about that a little bit and some plans for expansion.”

Ladonna:  “We are partnered with Indianhead Head Start Program, their early childhood head start.  They do different grants that are helping us improve our playground.  That will all be getting updated this spring.  It’s all in the works."

"They help us with our curriculum because that gets pretty costly otherwise.  Parents that get help through the county, they also help pay for some of the childcare.  You have to enroll and qualify for it, but they help us with teaching."

"Anytime we have any issues with anything, they’re there to answer our questions.  That is one of the partners we have.  We also work with, of course, state licensing, but we have Child Caring and we do Young Star with them every year."

"We do a microgrant.  We’ve been getting $1,000 a year that we work for and use to help pay for different supplies, updating, etc.  They rate us and we’ve been doing really good with that.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “The IndianHead grant is a nice one.  They’re going to be putting in an outdoor rubberized surface and expanding the daycare.  It’s going to be a very nice facility.  A vast improvement.”

Question:  “Does having this program help Granton students get used to the school setting?”

Ladonna:  “Absolutely!  We actually had a recent meeting where a couple of parents came up to me and said their biggest thing about why they enjoy having a daycare in the building because the kids get to know where everything is."

"They know who the teachers are.  They can find their way around the building because they go up to art class and other places.  We also do library time, pre-COVID, we were meeting with the librarian once a week and she would have story time with the daycare."

"So, we’re taking kids around the building.  We used to be able to meet with the band once in a while.  We would go and take them to swimming lessons during the summer time, play in the gym, etc."

"So, the kids get to know the building, they get to know the teachers, but also they get to know the other kids.  They see the other kids out on the playground and it’s not a strange place to them at all.  It’s been very beneficial.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “In the meeting that Ladonna referred to, I know that Ladonna was a part of the Strategic Plan Steering Committee and also a number of her parents from the community are involved in that as well.  They have some great ideas that we’re sharing as we’re developing our strategic plan and long range plan for facilities and programs into the future for Granton.”

Question:  “Anything else or final thoughts?”

Mr. Kuchta:  “I’d just like to say that we’re very fortunate to have Ladonna with her vast experience, 16 years working in her own business, running the daycare at her house, and then coming aboard and working almost 11 years now with the Granton School District.  The district and the community are very fortunate to have someone with the knowledge and expertise that Ladonna has.”

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.