From the Front Lines of Child Care: Annie's Story

From the Front Lines of Child Care: Annie’s Story

Annie Dunham is a Center Supervisor at Radiant Montessori, an early childhood program that typically provides care and education to more than 100 students in the Maple Grove area. Due to COVID-19, that number fell to about 70. At their lowest point of enrollment in mid-April, they only had about 35 children attending regularly. Many families chose to take a long-term absence or withdraw from the program with hopes to re-enroll at a later date. “While we are doing our best to try to keep things as normal as possible for our students, it has been very difficult,” Dunham said. “Our preschoolers know there are ‘germs’ and ‘a virus’ that is making things different, but they don’t fully understand what is going on around them. Our infants and toddlers thankfully are adapting well to the changes, but have no idea why any of it is happening.” With the exception of the first two weeks of the stay-at-home order, Radiant Montessori has been open to serve families. Several of their parents work in critical fields such as hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and as first responders. Radiant applied for Peacetime Emergency Child Care Grants from the state, but was denied. Dunham says they have been fortunate enough to still be able to pay their staff, and have not had to lay off or furlough any employees, although some staff have chosen to take a leave of absence. She says her biggest financial concern aside from just being able to afford operating costs is keeping their amazing teachers.

“Anyone who has worked in child care or has had their child enrolled in child care can attest to how important quality teachers are in providing a safe, nurturing, and loving environment that parents are looking for, and teachers want to be a part of,” Dunham said. “We have a very strong team of teachers who provide amazing care to our children and are the backbone of our program. Great teachers are hard to find and I hate the thought of losing any of our teachers for any reason.” Dunham has been working in child care for about 20 years. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education – Leadership and Management, which led to being part of the management team at Radiant, where she has been for the last 5 ½ years. Dunham got into the field simply because she liked working with children. “Over time, I grew to really enjoy seeing the different ways children learn and the challenges that comes with keeping a group of young children happy, healthy, and learning,” she said. “The early years are such an important time and I really enjoy the impact I have on a child’s life by being a part of their early education.” Dunham says some of the simplest tasks prior to COVID-19 are now some of the most difficult. Finding simple supplies like paper towels, toilet paper, and hand soap have consumed hours of time with online searches and risking exposure by having to go to multiple stores because many offer ‘in store purchases’ only on all the hard-to-get products. Dunham says she has written pages and pages of new policies and procedures to ensure the health and safety of their students and staff. “This is a responsibility I don’t take lightly,” she said. “Our teachers look to me to provide them with a safe working environment. Our parents look to me to ensure that their child is safe and well cared for. It is my job to ensure that the trust each parent has in our program doesn’t waiver in the face of this pandemic.” The center has implemented new drop off and pick up procedures which include temperature checks and health screenings for each child and staff prior to entering the school, and again mid-way through the day. They have adjusted their illness policies to reflect a lower fever threshold (99.5 degrees) for sending children or staff home to ensure that if they are becoming ill they are limiting their exposure to others in the school at the early stages when their viral load is hopefully still minimal. They are also not allowing anyone from outside the school into the building (delivery drivers, guests, extended family or friends of students, etc.) and parents are not allowed past the main lobby area. Radiant has limited their class sizes as much as possible while still providing the necessary care that families need during these difficult times. Dunham says lessons about supporting your friends, offering a hug when they are sad, and working together to accomplish tasks, have been replaced with trying to educate the students on social distancing.

Dunham says she has written pages and pages of new policies and procedures to ensure the health and safety of their students and staff. “This is a responsibility I don’t take lightly,” she said. “Our teachers look to me to provide them with a safe working environment. Our parents look to me to ensure that their child is safe and well cared for. It is my job to ensure that the trust each parent has in our program doesn’t waiver in the face of this pandemic.” The center has implemented new drop off and pick up procedures which include temperature checks and health screenings for each child and staff prior to entering the school, and again mid-way through the day. They have adjusted their illness policies to reflect a lower fever threshold (99.5 degrees) for sending children or staff home to ensure that if they are becoming ill they are limiting their exposure to others in the school at the early stages when their viral load is hopefully still minimal. They are also not allowing anyone from outside the school into the building (delivery drivers, guests, extended family or friends of students, etc.) and parents are not allowed past the main lobby area. Radiant has limited their class sizes as much as possible while still providing the necessary care that families need during these difficult times. Dunham says lessons about supporting your friends, offering a hug when they are sad, and working together to accomplish tasks, have been replaced with trying to educate the students on social distancing.

“Anyone who has spent 5 minutes with even a small group of young children knows how impossible of a task that is,” Dunham expressed. “It’s so hard to teach them to socially distance themselves from their friends, be careful of germs, and explain why adults are wearing masks in a way that they understand, but are not frightened by it.” Another concern Dunham has is having proper equipment to protect their teachers on a daily basis, and in the event of a possible exposure. “The first responders and medical community are in the greatest need and I would never want to take supplies away from them, but we are in need too,” she said. “If a child were to get sick while at school, all they want is someone to hold them and comfort them until their parent can pick them up. There is absolutely no way that I or any of our employees can do that without significantly increasing our own risk of exposure.” The center has been able to purchase some cloth and paper masks, but she says It would be great to have a small supply of paper gowns or other protective coverings on hand which seem impossible to get. “I really feel that my need and desire to protect our students and staff and give them a safe environment to come to work and school is greatly impeded by the resources I have available to me to do so,” Dunham said.

When asked how state leaders could better help her center and other child care programs during this tough time she answered with this: “I feel like child care is stuck in the middle and is getting lost in the shuffle. We are deemed essential and are providing a critical service to the community, but we are getting absolutely no direct support or direction from the government. There are minimal if any resources directed towards operating a childcare center during COVID-19. I would really like to see greater emphasis put on supporting the child care centers outside of financial grants. Help us get supplies, help us feel protected, help us feel supported, help us feel like you see us out here each day working largely unprotected in an environment where we are exposed to large groups of people daily. We need support too.”