In 2015, DEL featured a set of blog posts that
provided an in-depth description of what a family home child care
licensor and a center child care
licensor encounters on an average day at work.
Today, we will focus on an average day of work for
the early learning professionals who run child care programs in centers and in
family homes, providing high quality early learning to Washington children. The following post was
written after spending a day shadowing Lois Martin, director of the Community
Day Center for Children in Seattle’s Central Area.
About Community Day
Founded by Lula Martin in 1963, Community Day Center for Children
(CDCC) is in Seattle’s Central Area neighborhood. They serve 37 children, 13
percent of whom receive Working Connections Child Care subsidy. The CDCC lives
up to its philosophy to provide a culturally diverse atmosphere where children
learn through social interaction. The staff is comprised of African American
and East African educators and the children come from a variety of racial,
cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.
Lois Martin wears many hats throughout the day. From her
office she has eyes and ears on the activity in each classroom. She
communicates regularly with staff over walkie-talkies. She announces updates to classroom coverage
when two teachers are out for the day, advises teachers about shortened outdoor
play time schedules because of cold weather, and reminds teachers to look out
for flu symptoms after two children go home ill.
Quality Matters
CDCC is participating in Early Achievers, but has not yet
been rated. This is evident in her constant attention to child/
teacher ratios and the ability of staff to meet the individual needs of each child
even on short-staffed days. Martin shared that she and her teachers were using
Early Achievers tools several years before enrolling in the quality improvement
program because of the center’s affiliation with the City of Seattle
Comprehensive Child Care Program. When asked about how Early Achievers influences her day-to-day work, Martin notes that her first priority is the health and safety of the children and her staff.
Martin
shared the importance of utilizing these types of tools to analyze how the
center classrooms encourage quality early learning experiences for the
children. For example, they recently went through each classroom, as a group, to
talk through several environment rating scale checklists and how teachers are
using the different materials.
Supporting her teaching staff in their ongoing professional
development is another important part of Martin’s role as director. Most of the
CDCC educators are in school with three pursuing a Child Development Associate
(CDA) certificate, two pursuing Associate of Arts (AA) degrees and one pursuing
a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. Martin helps her staff find conferences and
training to aid in their professional development and provides them
opportunities to apply their learning as leaders at the center. She wishes
there was more time to dedicate to training as a group.
 |
Lois Martin, director of CDCC,
comforts a sick child sleeping
in her lap.
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Community Minded
Martin is also actively involved in the community
surrounding the center. Today, in addition to her errands and coordinating
adaptive schedule changes in classrooms, she has a phone conversation with a
community member about plans for the dedication of new outdoor space on the
Garfield Campus and their hope that it will become a community living room that
serves as a safe space for all. She recalls the ways the neighborhood has
changed over the 24 years she has been directing the center. While most of the
children live within an 8-block radius of the center, many center teachers are
no longer able to afford to live in the neighborhood.
The ability to retain and continue to provide high quality
care to families who receive Working Connections Child Care (WCCC) subsidies
was the major impetus in the center becoming a part of the Early Achievers
program. It is important to Martin that CDCC maintain a socio-economic
mix of families at the center, so she is willing to take the extra steps to
make this possible. For example, today she makes a call to the DSHS provider
line to confirm the center received a past-due co-payment. Then Martin
calls the parent to assure her the balance is cleared up and a called was
placed to the WCCC call center.
“If you really enjoy it, it becomes a part of your life and everything you do… That is how you obtain quality, we must pay attention to it every day,” Martin said.
As the day comes to an end, parents stop in to chat with
Martin. She shares highlights from the day and they laugh about communal
stories. She pulls out the walkie-talkie and cheerily praises her staff for
their good work taking care of each other and the children on a short-staffed
day, and reminds them to stop by the office to pick up treats left by a family
in appreciation for the center’s dedicated staff.
Know of a special place where Washington children grow and learn? Send ideas to communications@del.wa.gov.
