Center offers rural day-care option

Published 5:00 am Monday, June 30, 2003

PRINEVILLE – With cushioned chairs lined against the wall, an end table full of magazines and a matching color scheme, the lobby of Angland Accountancy, a small, independently-owned accounting firm, seems typical.

But posted on a door to the left is a small, white sign that says, ”Parents are welcome during all operating hours.”

Behind that door is something one would never expect to find at an accounting firm: a day-care center.

The way owner Lynne Angland, 53, sees it, Angland Daycare, which opened in February last year, is her way of customizing a benefits package to meet many of her employees’ needs.

She regularly employs about seven or eight employees, but has as many as 10 during tax season.

As a single mother of five, Angland understood the struggle of finding affordable, quality day care. Even before the on-site day-care center opened, she paid up to $400 a month to offset the cost of child care for her full-time employees. When she pitched them the idea of establishing the center, they went for it.

But it wasn’t until federal tax credits became available at the beginning of 2002 that the accountant in her saw an opportunity, and idle talk spawned a working day-care center.

”I have great employees and I want to keep them,” Angland said. ”It enables you to attract and keep employees. And it’s a good situation for parents to have accessibility and peace of mind.”

To child care advocates, it’s a successful example of what businesses can do to support child care for their employees. And it’s one of many options.

Businesses can offer employees family-friendly leave and sick-day policies; provide financial assistance; establish on-site day-care centers; reserve child care slots at centers for their employees; or partner with other businesses to create a centralized day-care center or network of child care providers.

In return, businesses could receive state and federal tax credits to offset the costs. They also have the chance to inspire more loyal and productive employees.

Cynthia Hurkes, the business liaison with the Oregon Child Care Resource and Referral Network, who promotes employer-supported child care, said that an investment in child care today is an investment in the future.

”Having high quality child care is important and helping employees find good quality child care helps cultivate the work force of the future,” Hurkes said.

As Central Oregon’s population explodes, more families struggle to find and pay for affordable, quality day care.

For the 29,344 children who are 13 and under in the tri-county area, there are available only 4,607 child care slots – which reflect capacity – or 15 slots for every 100 children. The information appeared in a report prepared by the Oregon Child Care Research Partnership made up of university researchers and state and national child care agencies. The goal is to have 25 child care slots per 100 children by 2010. Add to that the rising cost of child care, which for some families runs a close second to the cost of housing. Child care advocates estimate that families pay anywhere from $300 to $600 a month for full-time child care for one child, depending on the age and the area.

Nancy Knoble, executive director of a foundation called Central Oregon Partnership that works on poverty issues, said families can’t afford child care on their own.

”We as a community recognize that providing safe, secure child care is extremely important,” Knoble said. ”Families can’t afford that and just like education it has to subsidized in some way, whether it’s by employers or the government.”

Officials from the Commission on Children and Families of Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties banded together with other community social service agencies to coordinate a regional approach to combating child care issues.

They’ve come up with a three-pronged attack: train and mentor child care providers; monitor child care needs and progress; and promote employer involvement and community outreach.

To achieve these goals, officials secured $180,000 in funding, which they hope to award as a grant to a consortium of nonprofit groups and businesses.

Deborah Coehlo, a coordinator of human development and family sciences program at Oregon State University-Cascades Campus, conducted focus groups of families, child care providers and businesses to assess child care needs in Deschutes County. She found that most employers surveyed weren’t involved in child care issues and were unaware of their employees’ needs.

But a few businesses are catching on.

Ronda and Cy Fitton, owners of Bend-based Cascade Flooring and Design Center, are constructing a new store and warehouse that will house a day-care center for its employees and accommodate up to 12 infants and toddlers.

They are negotiating to have Growing Tree Children’s Center, a nonprofit daycare facility, run the center in exchange for rent-free space. About 11 out of 14 of their employees are women, said Cy Fitton, and two of them plan to enroll their children. They would have to pay rates set by Growing Tree, but they would be guaranteed a space, he said. The center should open sometime in September.

”We’re trying to be as progressive as we can in terms of management style to provide the most we can for our employees,” Cy Fitton said. ”We hope to have a happy and satisfied work force who will be able to have work be in harmony with family life.”

Deschutes County, which is constructing a new building to house county and state offices, also plans on donating rent-free space to a child care provider who would offer day care to state and county employees and their children, according to Susan Ross, a Deschutes County project manager.

The center will be housed in a portion of the current building on Wall Street once the new building goes up next year, Ross said, and the county doesn’t know yet if it would be open to the general public. Employees would pay whatever the provider charges, Ross said, but the building donation is meant to drive down operating costs.

”We know there’s a shortage and this is our way of contributing,” Ross said.

Bank of the Cascades, with a majority of its branches in Central Oregon, offers a 25 percent child care subsidy of up to $100 a month for any of its 260 employees, said Peggy Biss, the bank’s executive vice president of human resources. She estimated that about 15 to 20 percent of the employees take advantage of the subsidy. Employees can also save money for child care in a tax-free savings, or ”cafeteria” plan, she said.

”I think that it makes employees feel better about the company and realize that we care about them and that creates loyalty with our employees,” Biss said. ”It really provides for a great culture in our banks.”

Angland Daycare, which is only one of two licensed day-care centers in Prineville, can accommodate up to eight children from 6 weeks to 6 years old. Three employee children attend the center and Angland foots the bill.

To some Angland employees, having paid child care is something that can’t be matched by other benefits.

Every work day, Sherra Moore, 26, Angland’s office manager who has been with Angland for eight years, walks through the door into the toy-filled room to eat lunch with her two children, 5-year-old Tiffany and 21-month-old Amanda. On breaks, she darts over to the center to see how the kids are doing, peeks in on them while they’re sleeping and comforts them when they are crying.

”I’d rather have my kids next to me and know they’re safe,” Moore said. ”It’s worth so much to me, more than someone giving me more money.”

Angland said running a day-care center is not without problems and it’s not for every business. For one, it’s costly. She estimated that she lost about $30,000 in the first year of operation. It makes her small office even more cramped. And it’s another business for her to manage.

Angland also had to establish rules of engagement, setting times when it was OK for employees to check on their children and making it clear to the two day-care teachers that parents shouldn’t be bothered every time a child was upset.

Even so, it’s worth it.

”I did this because I have good employees and I saw a need,” Angland said.

Businesses who are interested in employer-supported child care can contact the Oregon Child Care Resource and Referral Network at 1-800-342-6712 or can visit the Web site at www.OregonEmployersofChoice.org for more information.

Ernestine Bousquet can be reached at 541-504-2336 or at ebousquet@bendbulletin.com.