Boulder’s new child care center will have to wait a few more months to open its doors. Southwest Montana Youth Partners has not yet received the State building permit that is necessary before Rachel Supalla’s 30-child Discovery Kidzone can officially embark on its new location – the modular adjacent to Boulder Elementary School.
SMYP President Drew Dawson and the Board had originally planned to have Supalla’s child care center open by late November or December of this year.
“Sadly, that won’t be the case,” Dawson said. “The holdup is mostly because we delayed submitting the State application for a building permit. Because the City doesn’t require State Building permits, we didn’t realize a permit was required for this government building. We should have, and it is now causing a delay. If we had submitted the request before the building was placed on the foundation, we obviously would have eliminated some headaches. But, hindsight is 20-20. We are moving on from here and many people are working incredibly hard to get the building in tip-top shape.”
Dawson explained that because this is an existing building placed on a foundation, extra measures are being taken by the building inspector. However, blueprints are accessible to the structural engineer to sign off on the building, which arrived in Boulder from north of Helena in December of 2021 after being purchased by Jefferson County for $110,000, courtesy of the American Rescue Plan Act.
According to Jefferson Local Development Corporation Childcare Coordinator Lindsay Graham, the building –which originally belonged to Jim Darcy Elementary School in Helena – just needs one more official approval before it can function as Discovery Kidzone. In the meantime, with a $50,000 grant just received from the Headwaters Foundation, SMYP is being proactive with the extra time by painting the building and installing new flooring.
So when does SMYP expect the childcare facility to be ready? Dawson said the facility and staff should be ready by early to mid-February.
“We submitted an application for the building permit later than anticipated,” he said, “and under the best of circumstances, it takes about six to seven weeks for a building permit to get approved. We expect ours to take a little longer than that.”
Dawson added that he apologizes for this inconvenient situation, which he said could have been prevented. What happened, he said, is that the building was not inspected when it arrived in Boulder, and considering it is a building built for the public in which the public will be using, a state building permit is required.
In the meantime, Graham said she is working with Supalla to ensure that childcare licensing is completed.
“We are gearing up as if we could open up in February at the earliest,” Dawson said. “We are continuing to push the construction element as hard as we possibly can to allow that to happen. All of our contracts will be in place. We still have to be able to finish up the building and be into the building legally.”
Like SMYP, Graham said Suppala is making the most of her time by advertising for staff and beginning to train those selected.
“It takes a while to get all the certifications done, and this way everything will be ready and will fall into line,” Graham said.
The same goes for registering the children, Graham added, as the Best Beginnings Scholarships take time to process and get children enrolled. This being the case, Graham said Supalla will start advertising for enrollment in January.
SMYP is also going to do more advertising come January, Dawson said, as they will launch a website within the next week.
“We want to raise money for matching funds so we can match funds for the scholarship programs,” Dawson said. “It’s a way to collaborate with the Best Beginnings scholarship and keep child care affordable for local families.”
Graham said tuition may vary, but “most parents will qualify for Best Beginning Scholarships.”
“We won’t know the amount until full enrollment,” she said. “The model we will start with is 10 best beginning, 10 scholarships, and 10 who can pay in full. The copay for last year was only $10, but the state went back to regular copay and we might have people who qualify for the Best Beginnings scholarship but still can’t afford the copay.”
Ultimately, Graham said she and SMYP want quality child care to be available and affordable to every family that needs it.
For more information, contact Graham at Lindsey.Graham@swmtyp.org or Drew Dawson at Drew.Dawson@swmtyp.org.
