By Marcia Barnes
Staff Writer
Southwestern Child Development let the Clay County Board of Education know they would be closing daycare at Clay County Schools on Tuesday, Oct. 31. This information was relayed to the board by Superintendent Scotty Penland when he gave a briefing at the Clay County Board of Education meeting on Monday night. Penland said that Southwestern Child Development made the announcement Oct. 16.
“This effects 31 children currently in daycare at Clay County Schools and 21 of them are children of teachers and staff,” Penland said. On the Wednesday following SCD’s announced closing of the daycare, Penland said that he met at the Department of Social Services with a cross-section of community representatives and asked, “What do we do?”
“I’m working on the school end,” Penland said. “The county is asking the legislature to help us get through the end of the year to give us more time and allowing the school to take over the daycare until June 7. It’s going to take about $45,000.”
Penland said that amount is also about what it would cost to recruit and retain teachers if the daycare closed. “It would be a little different if we had other daycare centers, “ he said. “This is to retain teachers, that’s my goal right now.”
Penland said that they have pooled ideas together, talked with parents and talked with staff.
“Childcare is tough and it’s expensive. Some people are not fortunate to have family who can help. Angel Owens has been in touch with a licenser who said that it takes a 30-day minimum to obtain a daycare license,” Penland said.
“They have pulled the daycare under our Pre-K license, then later, we’ll apply for our own daycare license.
“The county inspectors came today for a fire inspection. Everything is in place. Sidney McCrory from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is coming on Friday. She can approve us to start daycare on Wednesday, Nov. 1,” Penland said.
Chairman Jason Shook said that moving the daycare program over to Clay County Schools Pre-K is a short-term fix and requested a motion from the board on action. A motion came forward quickly and the board voted to approve.
Action taken on the critical daycare situation was addressed during the later part of the regular meeting and a special recognition was given earlier following board meeting formalities.
Recognition was given to Hayesville Elementary School in an announcement by letter received from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction naming Hayesville Elementary School as a candidate for National ESEA Distinguished School.
Angel Owens said the school was selected for their growth and that there are only two schools per category in N.C. ESEA is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. If Hayesville Elementary School is selected in regional, a representative could go on to the national conference.
A second recognition announced by letter came from Discovery, the after school and summer program. Penland said that the program has been operating under three-star status and received a letter that it has obtained five stars. As a three-star enrichment program, the school has been allotted $61,000 per year and that has been increased to $110,000 in attaining five-stars. Penland held up the letter with the emboldened five stars.
The new intermediate school project has slowed due to the uncertainty of whether or not the state will provide additional funding. The state may or may not allot extra monies for schools in the design and building process due to inflationary costs.
“It will be Jan. 8 before we can do anything. That’s out there farther than we wanted,” Penland said.
“We’re waiting on their information. We have the application ready, it’s ready to go. We want to be the first one out there. In the meantime, we have an alternate design.”
Prior to the board going into a closed session, Chairman Jason Shook announced that four finalists for the position of superintendent will be interviewed at 3 p.m. Wednesday. “Hopefully, a decision will be coming in the next few weeks,” Shook said.
The next regular board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 27.