NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce CEO Debra Teufel said that local officials should find out about the Child Care Capacity Accelerator Grant later this week.
"The Reno County Childcare Task Force was in the lead on making sure that we are uncovering every opportunity to bring new dollars to the table for Reno County for childcare," Teufel said. "When the Child Care Accelerator Grant was announced, we had about a month or six weeks to put an application together. The task force has hired Crossalign Consulting to work on the grant writing aspect. They worked hand in hand with the task force and eligible projects, to put together kind of a collaborative application, that hopefully will help fund about six different expansion opportunities of childcare in the community."
There are facilities in Haven USD 312, at Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System at Abundant Life, at Central Christian School and elsewhere across the county that all are hoping to get a piece of the funding to create more childcare slots. Buhler USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman is excited about her district's portion of the idea.
"We're looking at two facilities, two different ones," Couchman said. "They would be 70 slots total. About 35 slots in each one. What we're looking at is a building over at Buhler Grade School and a building over at Plum Creek Elementary."
Teufel said each of the centers that are part of the application worked hard to get ready.
"All of them had to jump through a lot of hoops themselves," Teufel said. "Having an approved site plan, that went into that application. In total, the application is seeking $2.1 million from the Accelerator Grant fund to help bolster these projects in Reno County."
The Kansas Children’s Cabinet will announce funding decisions at a special meeting on June 23rd.
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