EASTON, Maine — A new partnership between the Aroostook County Action Program and the Easton School Department could provide a much-needed option for child care in the region after two local day cares recently announced they will close.
ACAP and the school system are developing a comprehensive community education hub to offer a full range of services for infants and children — including day care — at Easton Elementary School starting this fall.
Schools and day cares usually operate independently of each other, but organizers hope that combining both types of service into one facility will make it easier for working parents to access them. They also hope the model could prove more financially sustainable than independently operating facilities, because it will pool funding from different sources.
“We’re trying to provide community service around child care to meet that working-all-day need for families in The County,” ACAP Chief Program Officer Megan Barnes said. “It allows families to have one dropoff, and involves those extended day services to the families of the Easton School Department under one roof.”
It has been an ongoing struggle for families in The County to access child care. The region is considered a child-care desert because of the limited number of providers for infants and toddlers.
Day care owners have struggled with increased costs of food, utilities and supplies, as well as delays in state assistance and inadequate staffing. And parents may find their jobs affected — or have to forgo work altogether — if they can’t find facilities for their kids.
Caribou’s largest public day care, Miss Jordyn’s Child Care and Preschool, closed in 2023, affecting more than 100 children and families. Black Moon Learning Center of Van Buren closed on March 1, citing rising costs and uncertain state aid.
Kelly’s Place Learning Center of Presque Isle will close on March 28, primarily because of delays in Maine Department of Health and Human Services payments.
Those challenges are also affecting other parts of Maine as well, which has prompted a flurry of recent attention to the issue in Augusta.
Maine’s Government Oversight Committee recently launched an investigation into late subsidy payments. Child care workers had also been facing $15 million in stipend cuts under Gov. Janet Mills’ biennial budget proposal. But after providers protested in Augusta on Tuesday, lawmakers on the Health and Human Services Committee rejected those and other cuts on Wednesday, the Portland Press Herald reported.
The project in Easton was inspired by the forthcoming Hight Family Early Learning Center in Skowhegan, which will be Maine’s first school program serving children as young as 6 weeks and all the way up to 12 years old. The Easton venture would be the first of its kind in Aroostook County, ACAP officials said.
The plan is still developing, but started when town leaders sought child care solutions from ACAP. The agency surveyed the Easton community to determine program needs and is now analyzing the responses.
The prospect is exciting, Easton Elementary School principal and curriculum director Erin Ireland said. With the school department, ACAP and the town combining efforts, the result should be an environment that fosters growth, learning and success.
Easton only has one day care facility, but there are many more kids who need care, Town Manager Cheryl Clark said. Constructing a new, separate day care building was not feasible, so officials found the community school idea attractive.
The learning center would create a space for ACAP’s infant and toddler child care and preschool inside Easton Elementary School, and would also serve older kids after school and during school vacations.
“It’s fantastic to see a partnership like this coming together,” Clark said. “We can fulfill the community’s need for day care, and if they are in that same building, ACAP can provide services to other children.”
The model is based on Skowhegan’s early learning center, which will provide an educational option that is new to Maine, said Nicole Chaplin, director of early childhood programming for the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program.
The center is being built at the Margaret Chase Smith Elementary School. For the first time in Maine, children will be able to attend day care, preschool and continue to receive services in the same building until they’re 12 years old, Chaplin said.
“This is an option that blends funding from the three different sources, and that gives more sustainability to the program over time,” Chaplin said. “It offers a continuity of care that we haven’t seen before.”
The Skowhegan center will serve 160 children and their families with infant and toddler day care and preschool, then kids will attend kindergarten through grade 5 there as well, according to KVCAP.
ACAP has implemented other community child care efforts. When Miss Jordyn’s closed in 2023, the agency started an after-school program for students at Caribou Community School, which serves grades K-8.
With the impending closure of Kelly’s Place, the action program plans to enlarge its infant and toddler program at its Gouldville Early Care and Education Center in Presque Isle. Staff are also discussing models similar to the Easton project with other local communities, ACAP officials said.
Results of the community survey will be presented at the Easton School Committee’s March 12 meeting, Barnes said. The responses will help staff determine next steps.
Plans include an infant-toddler group of up to 8 children, a preschool for up to 20 kids, and an after-school program.
People have responded positively to the Easton plan, Barnes said. Having everything under one roof would keep parents from having to transport kids to different locations throughout the day and could bring some cost savings, she said.
“We’re hoping to have everything in place for the new school year,” she said. “Part of that would be possibly starting the child care component in late summer.”
