NAMPA — At Endeavor Elementary, teachers have access to an affordable, onsite day care. Started to curb retention issues, the program is keeping teachers in their classrooms who might otherwise drop out of the workforce to care for their children. Read more about the program here, and scroll down for a look at who it impacts.
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By lunch time on a February school day, Teacher Erin Ulibarri had already checked on son Theo twice. “Even seeing them those little snippets during the day, it just feels like you’re more present,” she said. Below, Ulibarri, who teaches third grade, helps some students with an assignment.
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Ashlie Monroe, a second grade teacher, returned to work from maternity leave a month early “because of the day care. … My students need me in there,” she said.
Monroe has two children enrolled in the day care. “I probably would not be coming back (to work) if it wasn’t for having them both with me,” she said.
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Molly Hillier, an instructional coach at Endeavor Elementary, hugs her son Riggins, 4. Hillier is able to pop in to the day care and check on him throughout the day. She said the day care program positively impacts staff and students: “Ultimately, it benefits students because if you have happier teachers … they can pour that into the kids.”
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Lexy Birnel says goodbye to daughter Amelia, 2, before starting her day teaching at Endeavor Elementary in late February. Amelia and her younger sister attend the school’s onsite daycare. “I feel like I’m not having to compromise mom life,” said Birnel, who usually sees her daughters three to four times throughout the day. “I’m able to be more involved.”
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Christina Zimmerman drops off her daughter Parker, 1, at Endeavor Elementary’s onsite daycare. “I can be mom and teacher in the same breath,” said Zimmerman, who teaches fourth grade at Endeavor Elementary in Nampa, Idaho. “I’ve dreamed of teaching since second grade. Truthfully, it’s all I’ve wanted to do, but I also want to be there for my child. Picking between the two is not something that I wanted to do.”
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Jessica Dringenberg, a fifth grade teacher at Endeavor, said the school’s onsite day care eased her transition back to work after her son was born: “I had this overwhelming sense of peace dropping him off that first day because I knew he was down the hallway,” she said.
The school’s climate and culture is a draw for teachers, she said. “We are respected and valued and loved to the extent that we get to bring our families here.”
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Trista Jackson is a counselor at Endeavor. If it weren’t for the school’s day care, she said there’s a “high probability” she would not have returned to work after her son was born.
“It makes me feel like we are seen,” Jackson said of the day care. “It’s not just clock in, clock out.” Below, she shares lunch with her child, Boston.
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Endeavor Elementary’s onsite day care helps prepare staff members’ infants, toddlers, and young children for kindergarten.
