The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 118, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 10, 2008 Page: 4 of 36
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THURSDAY 1 □ APRIL 2DDS
THE CANADIAN RECORD
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The YMCA
day care crisis, 2
IT HAS BEEN VERY hard for us to read and
hear about the child care situation at the YMCA.
F irst and foremost, the board's decision to re-
linquish their Child Care License to operate ti
a community where child care is in demand is
somewhat puzzling. According to the posting
n the newspaper, the decision was made due
to new licensing regulations. One reason child
care licensing develops new regulations is for
the health and safety of all children in care. This
nforms your community that your concern for
the health and safety of the children of Canadi-
an is not in the board's best interest, so your an-
swer is to close the child care.
Has anyone thought about how to work with
child care licensing to brainstorm ideas to keep
the doors open? It shouldn't take too much to
think "outside the box" to make this work. You
do want to promote growth to the community,
right? If there are no choices for parents or com-
petition for quality care then, with regret, the
level of quality will eventually may diminish.
It is also stated that the child care staff wag-
es were another reason. Did you know that child
care has one of the highest turnover rates n
Texas, due to low wages and staff "burnout?" In
today's world if you want to keep quality staff
you must compensate with good wages and af-
fordable benefits.
The YMCA has two of the most valuable,
qualified, quality staff that many early child-
hood professionals have had the honor of work-
ing with irt the early childhood profession. With
a combination of over 47 years of dedicated ser-
vice to the families of Canadian, Miss Cathy and
Miss Debbie have maintained a safe and healthy
environment for the Y children.
The study of brain development tells us that
the early years of ch ildhood are the most mpor-
tant n the lives of children. These are the for-
mative years, the time in their life when their
brains have the most neurons and f not used
these neurons eventually die. By the age of
three, the brains of children are two and a half
times more active than the brains of an adult.
Quality early childhood education is in high de-
mand, not only because parents want what is
best for thei r child ren, but because it is the foun-
dation to promote education.
Miss Cathy and Miss Debbie have a great
deal of knowledge in the early childhood field.
Each year theydetermine the appropriate steps
necessary to maximize the full potential of each
child by implementing an environment for cre-
ative, hands on learning, keeping in mind the
developmental levels of each child in care.
As the children master each level these la-
dies know when it is time for the children to
be challenged with something new. They have
gone above and beyond the ABC's, numbers
and colors, to ensure that children are exposed
to literature and language arts, history and ge-
ography, math and science to name a few. They
also are known for teaching etiquette; this is the
only time some children will learn how to say
please and thank you very kindly.
During their tenure, these two ladies have
been instrumental in training other caregivers
n the early childhood industry throughout the
Texas Panhandle, New Mexico, and Oklaho-
ma. Many times they were hired by Child Care
Management Services or Panhandle Associa-
tion for the Education of Young Children to con-
duct trainings for their area wide conferences.
These trainings have been very successful, with
requests for more.
Miss Cathy received an award for Early
Childhood Caregiver of the Year in 1999 when
she was chosen from a pool of many other ear-
ly childhood professionals from the Texas Pan-
handle as well as being inducted into the Hall of
Fame for her service to early childhood.
Based on a memo [on previous page] that
was delivered to the child care staff, all child
care staff will be "laid off" effective May 31. In
the next month, Miss Cathy and Miss Debbie
will be developing their last set of lesson plans,
saying their last Pledge of Allegiance, and per-
forming their last graduation ceremony to their
final group of children.
How can an organization with values and
principles such as the Y do something like this
to their tenure quality staff? How can an orga-
nization such as the Y decide that it would be in
their best interest to operate an unregulated fa-
cility? Wouldn't you think this would be a liabil-
ity issue to open the doors and let children freely
come n and out—leave with people they don't
know or better yet not arrive, because they took
a ride with a stranger.
Do the children of Canadian have a safety
net? It may be expensive to pay quality staff
to ensure the health and safety of children who
attend the Y, but don't you think it's worth the
money? When was the last successful commun:
ty-wide fundraiser?
The Little House alone can not support the
number of families already in Canadian. There
has got to be availability of care and the demand
s evident. However; it should not be unregulat-
ed care. It is the law to be Listed (caring for 1-3
children), Registered (caring for 1-12 children)
or Licensed (caring for more than 12 children)
unless an exemption is in place by the Texas De-
partment of Family and Regulatory Services.
Now it is time to bid farewell to Miss Cathy
and Miss Debbie. You have filled many little
hearts and minds with your passion for a qual-
ty early childhood education. These children
and their families were very fortunate to have
you in their lives as they will have many unfor-
gettable memories at the YMCA. Thank you for
the many years of dedicated service to the early
childhood profession.
FRANCES E.GARCIA
Program Manager, Panhandle
WorkSource Child Care Service
JULIE HARPER, Lead Provider
Specialist
YVETTE DIAZ, Provider Specialist
TERESA CHAVEZ, Provider Specialist
EDITOR'S NOTE: In the interest of full dis-
closure, Frances Garcia is the sister of Miss
Cathy, the Y's day care program director.
The YMCA contracts with Panhandle Work-
Source Child Care Service to provide subsi-
dized day care to families in need. —LEB
State Capital
Highlights
By fd Sterling
MAS PRESS ASSOCIATION
AUSTIN—A number of citizens expressed alarm after
viewing a video clip showing state representatives en-
gaged in the practice of "ghost voting" during the 2007
session of the Legislature. Ghost voting is when a mem-
ber casts an electronic vote for one or more colleagues
who happen to be outside of the House chamber when a
vote is called by the chair.
State Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas, said Apr: I 4
that among House members, it's about 2 to 1 in favor of
his suggestion to do away with the practice. "But the
public is about 99 percent in favor," he added.
A solution would be to nstall 10 or 12 remote voting
stations that work by fingerprint identification, Goolsby
said. Those stations would be in addition to a fingerprint
voting machine to be installed at each member's desk.
Goolsby also suggested nstalling loudspeakers in the
foyers and restrooms outside of the House chamber and
lengthening the amount of time allotted for each vote
would help, too.
There is a legislative interim charge for the matter to
be stud ied. A House rule amend ing the voting procedure
could be up for consideration when the next regular ses-
sion of the Legislature convenes on Jan. 13,2009.
DAY CARE...CONTINUED
the community, wouldn't it be sad to hear..." Well, our community
has one wonderful day care, but it is full."
It is also heartbreaking to think of where our children will have
to go while we work. We have had comfort knowing that our chil-
dren are taken care of for so long... Now, some mothers may have
to quit their jobs. Some will be fortunate enough to find someone
to take care of their children at home. For those watching children
n their home, we have to remember there are regulations on reg-
stered homes as well.
The day care was a service to the community. Whether or not
it is a money maker—even though the YMCA originally was not
made to have a day care in it—it was a service that your facility
has offered the working fathers and mothers of Canadian. A much
needed service. It is sad to see that go away.
As I read the article in the newspaper last week asking for fi-
nancial help to build the new Little House, it made me angry to
think that someone didn't care enough about the YMCA to ask the
community for help. Where are the YMCA advocates??? There
was a time when the board was full of people who all had a list of
business and organizations to approach for donations. Each board
member was responsible for his part n collecting money to be
used to operate the YMCA each month, each year....
Some of the ex-board members and ex-directors were invited
to the Santa Fe room on the night of April 3rd. To form a "Vision-
ary and Advisory" committee. Apparently this meeting was an
"invitation only" event. Who put this together? Some of the ex-
board members were left off that list. Why? Why not have the peo-
ple that "use" the YMCA on a regular basis come? Don't you think
that the people on the other side could bring forth some sugges-
tions? There again, if you don't involve the community, the com-
munity will not know that there is a need.
CHRISTIE SPENCE
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Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 118, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 10, 2008, newspaper, April 10, 2008; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth252699/m1/4/: accessed July 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hemphill County Library.