BCCP has identified Yuma Children’s Academy (YCA) as a model center. This center has been 100% debt-free since day-one and like most of the centers in Eastern Colorado, enrollment is at capacity with waiting lists. Yuma Children’s Academy provides a warm, loving, colorful and engaging early childhood educational environment. The leadership team of Yuma Children’s Academy has already provided an abundance of information to the BCCP board and is a sound resource for building our own community non-profit childcare center.
As we learn from the success stories of our neighbors, the Yuma and Wray centers staff 16 and 14 full-time employees, respectively, for a combined total of 30 employees within 30 miles of each other. Based on the 2010 Census, Burlington’s population is larger than each of those two cities, therefore, we can reasonably expect that we could pull candidates from a similar, if not larger, pool of applicants.
Like our neighbors, the Burlington center will employ highly qualified full-time or part-time-shared roles of Director, Assistant Director, and one Early Childhood Teacher (ECT) for each classroom, with the Infant Room ECT having special training/experience. There are various pathways to obtaining qualifications for these positions through a combination of post-secondary education and early childhood work experience. Interested candidates are encouraged to contact the BCCP board now to begin working towards qualification.
Additionally, Teacher Aides will be employed for each classroom. Teacher Aides must be 16 years of age and experience is not required. The Center will be looking to partner with Morgan Community College and Burlington School District to establish a work-study student partnership, thus also seeking to spur interest in the early childhood education field among students. Investment in these students will help create a future of qualified employee candidates for the Center.
