Sally Harrison has been an early childhood educator for 25 years. 

Harrison works at Eternal Hills Preschool in Tabernash, and is just squeaking by. She has car payments from the vehicle she bought last spring, along with the handful of groceries she can afford each week, gas and other bills. 

The apartment she recently moved into is $200 more a month and takes up half her monthly income.

In May, Kay Irvine, director of Eternal Hills Preschool, announced that staff would receive supplemental income from the Childcare Strategic Investment Fund. 

Harrison is eagerly waiting and mulling over the best uses for the check when it arrives.

The Childcare Strategic Investment Fund is a three-year pilot program for full- and part-time infant, toddler and pre-kindergarten educators at nonprofit learning centers in Grand County. 

The stipend is paid quarterly, with $1,000 for full-time teachers who spend at least 32 hours a week in the classroom and $600 for part-time teachers, who spend at least 20 hours a week in the classroom. 

The program began July 1 as part of a community wide initiative to improve childcare in Grand County. 

Three years ago, the town of Winter Park asked Megan Ledin, executive director of the Grand Foundation, to partner with child care council Grand Beginnings to identify childcare needs in Grand County.

Katie Hale, executive director of Grand Beginnings, is still working with public policy advocacy group EPIC to create a “bigger fundraising philosophy,” Ledin said. The effort identified four areas of need: tuition assistance, availability for new students, capital infrastructure and livable wages for early childhood educators. 

In a resolution supporting participation in the fund the town of Fraser, stated, “current early childhood education system serves less than 40% of local children, tuition covers only approximately 60% of provider costs, and workforce shortages are driven primarily by low compensation.”

In the meantime, Ledin decided to address the issue of livable wages  by creating a field-of-interest fund at the Grand Foundation. 

“We wanted to help what we felt was the larger need right now,” Ledin said. That was to attract and retain quality child care teachers.

Ultimately, assistance landed in the laps of local nonprofit early childcare centers because there are at least six locations in Grand County, and because they make significantly less revenue than for profit entities, Ledin said. 

Irvine, director of Eternal Hills, said 99% of her preschool’s operational costs go towards teacher salary and benefits. 

Without grant funding, increases in salaries or benefits are absorbed by families in the community. “The goal is to keep it affordable for parents,” Irvine said. The stipend helps  retain teachers without increasing the cost of care. 

The Grand Foundation administers the Childcare Strategic Investment Fund, which recieves $100,000 annually from Grand County,  $100,000 from Winter Park,  $25,000, from Fraser  and  $50,000 from the Grand Foundation. 

Eternal Hills Preschool, Granby Play Days Preschool, Kremmling Preschool and Grand Kids Learning Center will all benefit. 

On Sept. 8, the funding partners entered into a memorandum of understanding during the meeting of the Grand County Board of County Commissioners. Because it is a pilot program, Ledin said it will be a dynamic process, with room for improvement. 

Jessee Barr Thrift, another educator at Eternal Hills receiving the stipend, still buys toys for students with her own money. She plans to save the stipend to someday buy a house in Grand County. 

Harrison decided not to seek emergency grant money for financial help because she believes she can make it until the stipend check arrives. 

Irvine and Harrison, who has worked as a director, both expressed how stressful it is to rely on grant money to fund operations. 

Despite the financial challenges, Harrison, and Irvine, and Thrift, are grateful. 

“We just appreciate that they see the need and the problem, and that they’re taking a stab at it,” Harrison said. “I think the fact that they are trying something is huge.”