Madison entrepreneur and former state representative Kelda Roys was a brand new mom in the early days of her business, OpenHomes Realty. The combination of launching a startup and raising a newborn was daunting, but Roys took comfort in knowing that her daughter would be in child care at Creative Learning Preschool, just a few blocks away from her downtown office.
“For someone who was working, it was essential for me to have her so close,” says Roys, who used to walk from her office on the Capitol Square to Creative Learning on South Butler Street to nurse her daughter during her first year. “It helped me transition back to work.”
For the scores of parents working in downtown offices and government buildings, there have been two strong options for child care near the Capitol Square: Creative Learning, and Red Caboose Day Care Center. Both are highly rated, accredited and have been around for decades. But in about a year, Red Caboose will move to a new location on the east side of Madison. The new building, which will be part of the Union Corners development, will allow Red Caboose to expand and serve more families, Executive Director Lisa Fiala says.
Creative Learning has also considered moving from downtown, causing concern about the few options for working parents who want to be close to their child.
“When you look at the development boom that’s been happening downtown in the last 15 years, rent has become more expensive and it’s difficult for all nonprofits — and particularly nonprofits like daycares, who are operating on very thin margins,” Roys says. “For public employees, state workers, county workers and university employees, there are really very limited options for child care downtown.”
Fiala sees the move for Red Caboose as a positive one. The daycare has about 100 children on a waiting list and space for only 65 children per day in its current facility. Red Caboose leadership has talked about renovating the current building, or even demolishing it and building new in the same location, but “it’s just not affordable for a small nonprofit,” she says.
“We love this neighborhood, we love this site, but we’ve been looking [at options] for over three years,” she says. “We’re very happy that Union Corners is an opportunity for us to expand.”
Before deciding on the move, Red Caboose surveyed staff, families and alumni for input on how the shift away from the immediate downtown area would affect service. They didn’t want to go too far away from the city center, but the majority of those surveyed “felt that Union Corners is not too far away,” Fiala says.
The new Red Caboose will be across the street from the UW Health clinic. The expanded facility will allow for two more classrooms, bringing its capacity to almost 100 children. Its current staff of 30 to 35 will increase by about 15. Red Caboose is still working on its offer to purchase the property and is soliciting donations to offset the cost. Crews will break ground in fall 2017 or spring 2018. The current building on Williamson Street is not officially on the market yet, but Fiala says “people know it’s available” and interest in the property is high. The income from the sale of the property will help fund the expansion.
“By staying [downtown], we wouldn’t have that additional amount of income,” Fiala says.
Meanwhile, Creative Learning is tackling the problem of rising costs downtown by raising money to buy its building from the current landlord. So far, it’s raised $325,000 and needs $50,000 more to reach its goal.
Mary Flanner, who has been executive director of Creative Learning for 21 years, has seen the impact of rising costs — everything from increases in rent to the price of milk — and has weathered budgetary changes when Gov. Scott Walker ended the state’s child care subsidy five years ago. When Creative Learning looked to move a few years ago, there was nothing affordable nearby and renovation was too costly. But a solution came when the owner of the building started talking about selling.
“We knew that if we didn’t buy it, nobody else would be able to afford to buy it and provide child care,” she says.
“It’s very exciting; we’re feeling very good about it,” Flanner says. “It’s just an amazing accomplishment for everybody, most of all the kids and the parents. Now, [Creative Learning] will go on indefinitely instead of being forced out.”