Gretchen George knows Boulder well. She grew up in town and she now lives “over the hill” in Clancy—and she knows that Boulder has an acute need for licensed child care. Since Jan. 3, she’s been helping to meet that need, overseeing the opening of the new Nature Story Montessori at Boulder United Methodist Church.
The Montessori school, aimed at caring for children from 3 months to 4 years old, is located in the church hall at 108 N. Monroe St. and occupies the entire upstairs of the building, complete with a full kitchen and bathroom. George, who has worked for Nature Story in Helena and Montana City for about three years, and helped open the latter location, said that “I actually went to preschool in this building … that’s why I was super interested in getting back into this building.”
She knew Boulder needed child care “because there was nothing here,” and Nature Story originally began looking for a space to purchase about two years ago before deciding to pursue a rental. Separately, the city of Boulder partnered with Jefferson County to purchase a building from north of Helena and relocate it to Boulder Elementary School, where a newly formed nonprofit plans to eventually establish a low-cost child care operation. But that operation has yet to be established.
The city originally considered the Methodist Church before deciding to pursue a larger space. But the church hall fit the bill for Nature Story. Once George, the overall director of Nature Story’s three locations, contacted the church, things came together quickly, including hiring two lead staffers and two aides, all of whom work there five days a week.
“I reached out [to the church] and they got right back to me and said, ‘What can we do to help?’” she said. “I believe I reached out to them in September, just to kind of see. We know what we’re doing. Once we have a space, we know what we have to get in to get licensed and approved.”
Some of those licensing requirements—the staffing, operation and safety standards that set licensed child care providers apart from unlicensed, often at-home operations—include covered outlets, gates blocking stairways, working smoke alarms, having enough toys and maintaining a certain ratio of staff to children. Plus, she said, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services regularly inspects facilities to ensure compliance.
“A license ensures that you’re doing all the things to keep the kids safe, that someone is coming in and checking on you,” she said.
Prepping the space in time for the January opening was “a very busy three or four months,” she said, that included repainting, installing new carpet, buying and building furniture, decorating the space, and replacing furnishings like window coverings.
Though she knew there was high demand for child care in Boulder, George said she was still surprised by the rush to register kids before the facility even opened. Full-time child care, or care five days a week, costs about $900 per month, she said, though part-time slots cost a fraction of that, and income-based financial assistance is available through the state. The cost, she said, is “kind of middle of the road” for a Montessori school in the area, though it’s more expensive than regular day care.
So far, she said, things are going very well: “I think parents are telling us they’re really happy, the kids are happy. The kids are starting to learn the routine.”
The school is nearly full every day, she said, serving 13–15 children daily. Fifteen children are allowed in the space at a time, though not every child is there everyday, so the facility is able to serve more than 15 children over the course of the week. Nature Story is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with educational programming following the Montessori method from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
George said that the educational method, developed by Maria Montessori, instructs educators to “follow the child,” and it “sets parameters but lets the kids choose how to learn. They’re all learning the same thing but a different way.”
Full-time slots at Nature Story Montessori are currently full, she said, but some part-time slots are available. Once some of the older children in the program head to kindergarten next year, she said, some full-time spots may become available.
All of the families with children in the program are from the Boulder area, with only one coming from as far as Jefferson City, she said, noting that many parents have told her that child care has allowed them to more easily continue working, get back to work or enroll in school.
“We’ve had a couple who have said, ‘Oh, I’m so excited, I can go back to work now.’”
