The Learning Center works toward move to North Grand building

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

If all goes as planned, TLC: The Learning Center will be offering its child care services from a new location by next summer.

The community organization has been negotiating with the Charles City School District about leasing several rooms in the 1970s addition of the building at 500 N. Grand Ave., the former middle school.

TLC Director Pam Ost gave an update on the negotiations and the plans for the move at the Charles City Rotary Club lunch meeting Monday.

Of special note, she said, TLC will be hosting an open house from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 13, at the North Grand building to show off plans for the rooms, give tours and answer questions.

The gathering is also the Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event for August, and refreshments will be served.

Mike Fisher, superintendent of schools, is expected to speak at 5:15 p.m. and Ost will talk at 5:30 p.m.

Dan Levi, of Levi Architecture in Cedar Falls, will also be on hand to answer questions, Ost said.

Levi is a volunteer architect on a committee of the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa that helps consult with child care centers, and he is an expert on Department of Human Services requirements for child care center construction, remodeling and relocating, Ost said.

She told the Press preliminary reports are that no walls will need to be moved or removed in the rooms TLC wants to use, but an additional door may be necessary on at least one room to meet emergency exit requirements.

Some plumbing will be needed for restroom and changing facilities and bottle and food prep areas for the space intended for the youngest children.

Carpeting will also be installed in some areas, and TLC may look at replacing some of the lighting with LED lights for cost savings, she said.

The TLC’s board of directors sent the school district a letter of intent in January to talk about leasing rooms 130B through 134, in the northeast part of the newer addition of the 500 N. Grand building.

Those are the former music rooms and industrial arts rooms that are across from the gymnasium, locker rooms and the now unused swimming pool. It also includes a boys and a girls restroom and some office and other space.

Ost told the Press that TLC and the school district are still negotiating over the terms of a lease, but every expectation is that they will reach an agreement and the child care can move into the building by summer 2020.

Ost said at the Rotary meeting that North Iowa Community Action Organization, the Mason City-based group that owns the current building at 404 N. Jackson St. where TLC leases space, has received a grant to expand its Head Start programming to add Early Head Start.

She said it’s a good thing that Early Head Start, for children ages birth to 2, will be available in the community, but that will require more space at 404 N. Jackson for the program, meaning TLC would be squeezed even more tightly than it is now.
“Since 2015, TLC enrollment has increased from 45 to 82 children,” Ost said at the Rotary meeting.

“The need for child care continues to grow,” she said, and it has become apparent that TLC’s space needs cannot be met at its current location.

Since negotiations began with the school district, TLC representatives have talked with contractors, inspectors, architects, the Iowa Department of Human Services, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Charles City economic development executive director, Child Care Resource and Referral, Northeast Iowa Community Foundation, Iowa Rep. Todd Prichard, the Floyd County Medical Center administrator, the Charles City fire chief, the Foster Grandparents program, Excellence in Education, the school district buildings and grounds committee and TLC staff, Ost said.

“We’ve tried to do as much preliminary work as possible to make sure that the answer that we were seeking was the right answer,” she said.

What they came up with — “The Grand Plan,” to move to the North Grand building — “is not only the answer to the future for TLC, but the growing child care needs of the community,” Ost said.

Shirley Kelly, current president of the TLC board of directors and one of the founding board members, said every member of the 11-person board is enthusiastically supportive of the idea to move to North Grand.

“To meet the changing needs and the increased needs of our community, we need to make some changes in our location, and we need to do some different things,” Kelly said.

Ost said the square footage of space available to the child care center will about double when it moves to North Grand, but there isn’t a plan to double enrollment.

“We still need space for those kids to grow and do and have those activities that we want them to be able to reach those milestones at each age level,” she said.

“Yes, we will increase. We’ll hopefully go up to 125, 135 children that we can be working with,” she said.

Ost said the lease will include green space outside the building, as is required by DHS rules, and the current outdoor play equipment should be able to be relocated.

The gymnasium will also be available, to be used on days when the weather isn’t appropriate to go outside, so the kids will still be able to run and play. That’s something they don’t have space for now, she said.

Ost said TLC hopes to keep finding ways to partner with the school district, and would eventually like to take over the space where the Iowa BIG North program is located in the North Grand building for an older student homework center or a mentoring program.

She mentioned the program announced last week where TLC will provide child care options from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to provide child care before and after 4-year-old preschool.

Ost said the move to the North Grand building could be transitional next year. The older children will be easiest to move over. The infants and the other younger children require the most work in their areas to meet Department of Human Services requirements for a licensed community child care program.

She also said additional open house opportunities will be planned for the proposed North Grand rooms this fall.