As area non-profit organizations plan for the next fiscal budgeting year, many are discussing where they have been in the past year, and where they are wanting to be within the next. Carroll Area Child Care Center and Preschool is a non-profit that seeks financial funding through the county and Director, Nikki Heuton, said they have had to create a waiting list for families seeking child care.
The 10 families from outside the county are living in rural areas near the borders. Heuton said they received the Warren H. Timmerman Grant for $9,500 last year, which replaced the kitchen refrigerator and freezers to commercial size to offer them the opportunity to save on food costs with bulk buying. Their biggest expense is staffing, and they currently have 45 team members, which is a comfortable level according to Heuton. All staff are federally and criminally background checked, trained in first aid, CPR, mandatory reporting, universal precautions and six other additional child development training hours that interest them. But it is a struggle, Heuton said, to keep good employees in place.
The board is trying to come up with ways to afford to keep these employees.
Heuton said at the November board meeting, an allotment was approved to try to bring up wages of current employees. Tuition rates were raised in January, and that money too will be used mainly toward wages, with 90 percent of the salaries paid from tuition. Heuton said the board, however, is not going to be asking for an increase in funding from Carroll County, and will seek $11,000 again for fiscal year 2018.
