Our Lady of Peace Catholic Parish in Ironwood started All Saints Little Lambs Childcare in 2016. At the time, the six kids enrolled were taught and entertained in a single classroom.
Since then, the operation has grown exponentially.
Kim Anderson, the center’s program director, says it now enrolls 191 children. Nearly 100 more are on the waitlist.
“Currently in Ironwood, we are the only child care center that is available,” Anderson says. “We absorbed two child care centers that closed within the last year.”
The operation has gotten so big so quickly that the parish feels it cannot continue to manage the center while also keeping on top of its other responsibilities, says John Fee, the communications director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette.
The church plans to separate from the child care center by the end of the year.
According to a statement from the parish’s finance committee, it intends to lease the space out to a separate entity.
Anderson has put an offer on the table to continue her operation independently. She is waiting to see if it will be accepted.
If it’s not, her center will close, and parents could have to wait without child care for a new provider to become licensed.
“Obviously, if our child care was to close, that would devastate about 183 parents total and 36 employees would be unemployed,” Anderson says. “That would be a devastation to our hospital and our nursing homes and things like that.”
If her offer is accepted, Anderson will have to run the operation without the discounts that come with church affiliation. She has applied for grants to help foot that bill.
Until a decision is made about the future of the center, the whole community is in limbo – teachers are considering finding new work, parents are seeking alternative child care options, and kids are wondering if they’ll start 4k in the fall.
While this specific situation is unique to Ironwood, it is a microcosm of a broader issue: the shortage of affordable, reliable child care.
