DENVER — It was nap time at Family Star Montessori, and Sue Alexander, a retired accountant, settled on the floor next to a little girl named Ophelia. The child leaned against her and announced: “I love soft things. »
Alexander’s “squishy thing” – his arm – has just earned him a new friend.
Alexandre is a member of Early childhood services corpswhich trains adults ages 50 and older to work as substitute teachers in child care centers like this one in Denver and surrounding suburbs. In addition to helping recruit an industry chronically short of workers, ECSC also provides its members with personal growth and community connections in the years after retirement., say the participants.
“There was a lot of training, but it was really well organized,” Alexander said of the program. “They have good people.”
The shortage of child care teachers is a well-known problem, but the lack of qualified substitute teachers doesn’t always receive as much attention. Legally, centers are required to maintain a certain number of adults for the children in their care. Without reliable substitutes, full-time teachers can barely get out of the room for a short break, much less make longer appointments, like a doctor’s visit. The program also offers volunteer “business advisors” who provide administrative support to centers that need it.
“The field of child care and education is full of smart people trying to find ways to shore up the system in every way possible,” said Elizabeth Pufall Jones, director of readiness and work environment programs at the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. Early childhood teachers are often seen as babysitters whose roles can be easily filled, she said, but that’s not true. With CECA members, “you know they are well-qualified people to get into those classrooms.”
Lisa Armao, who has worked in early childhood education for over 30 years, founded ECSC in 2022, inspired by a documentary called “The Growing Season”which features a program in Seattle housing a senior center and daycare under one roof.
She visited the Seattle program with the intention of trying to launch a similar model in Denver. The pandemic upended his plan to create a stand-alone facility, but Armao managed to raise more than $440,000 in state and local funding for the CECA model of placing seniors in child care centers both as substitute teachers and as office staff.
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Over the past three years, ECSC has placed approximately 150 volunteers in Montessori programs and other child care centers in the Denver area. Those interested in becoming teachers complete three to four months of online courses offered by Red Rocks Community College. Those who want to work with children but do not want additional training complete 19 hours of training modules offered by the ECSC. Volunteer business advisers undergo seven hours of free training on early years regulations before being placed in a centre. Some of the program participants are paid, while others provide child care support free of charge.
Family Star Montessori educates 230 children, ages 8 weeks to 6 years, in its two schools and home learning program. Having Alexander in a classroom means teachers can step out to answer a phone call or go to the bathroom without worrying about whether there are enough adults in the classroom.
“We don’t talk about bathroom breaks enough,” Armao said. “If you have to go to the bathroom, there has to be someone to cover you in that space, which can make for a very uncomfortable work environment. Attending to adults’ needs helps boost morale.”
The ECSC has attracted a steady stream of local media attention, and that’s how most seniors know about the program, but finding corps members to fill the need remains a challenge. Armao said he has received inquiries about replication from people in California, Ohio, Oregon and Washington state.
Just as Family Star executive director Lindsay McNicholas relies on Alexander to help care for the children, she depends on another ECSC member, Jean Townsend, for administrative support.
Before retiring, Townsend owned a local economic consulting firm and, among other accomplishments, helped start the Colfax Marathon, an annual race that brings together thousands of runners. She came to Family Star with extensive contacts among business and political leaders as well as a roll-up-your-sleeves attitude.
“I learned that if you have a problem, you solve it,” Townsend said. She is working with the center as it plans to sell one site and buy another, with more modern heating, closer to where most families live.
Townsend’s business experience was invaluable, McNicholas said. “I was able to meet with officials and city planners in Jefferson County, which is a new county for us. It gave us a boost with this truly incredible opportunity for our organization.”
Related: Young children have unique needs and providing the right care can be a challenge. Our free early childhood education newsletter tracks issues.
Armao said corps members come from varied professional backgrounds and have different expectations of the experience. Along the way, they discover a largely invisible profession. “They get an early childhood education and come to understand it in a deeper way. Some cling to the fact that it’s an economic driver. Others cling to the simple fact that these children will be humans who run our world.”
Kit Karbler, 72, is a glass artist whose work is on display at the Denver Art Museum. “If I hadn’t found this, I can’t imagine what I would be doing,” he said of his role as a substitute educator at an early childhood learning center based in Emmanuel Temple in Denver. Karbler works 20 hours a week, more if they need him. “What would I do to get that emotional return?” »
Kamal Fakhouri, 68, has worked in education and business throughout the Middle East. At Monarch Montessori, a public school with 250 children ages 6 weeks to 5 years, Fakhouri fills in as a substitute teacher.
Born in Lebanon, she lived in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Egypt before moving to Denver to be near her daughter and grandchildren. This was at the height of the Covid pandemic. Fakhouri said she especially appreciates the moments of connection. “I was reading with a kid in a class I hadn’t been to in a while, when (a kid) came up and hugged me and started talking to me about the work he was doing,” she said.
Bethanne Rodriguez, executive director of the five sites Thriving in Kindergarten network in the Denver area, which has hosted corps members, said she appreciated their “older faces and older energy” — as well as the example they set for the rest of the staff. “They have had a career and have that life experience that allows them to know and understand the investment that this work represents,” she said. “They know what it means to show up for work and what it means to not call when you’re having a bad day.”
One of the corps members at the Thrive location in Littleton is Yvonne Wilder. After her first week in the nursery, her muscles ached in places she’d forgotten existed. The retired wetlands biologist, who had spent decades cataloging the city of Tampa’s ecosystems, was discovering that an eight-hour shift required a different kind of stamina than fieldwork ever had.
“It’s a very physically demanding job,” Wilder, 57, said. “I change diapers all the time. I do everything. I admire everyone who does this full time because it’s not easy.”
During her first year, Wilder said, she was constantly getting sick and her adult children asked if she really wanted to continue. But soon her immune system caught up and she discovered that spending time with the kids, germs and all, made her happy.
“I was asked, ‘Are you my grandmother?’ “, she said. “And I’ll say, ‘I can be your school grandma.’ It is such a privilege to know them and be known by them.
Support for this reporting came from New America’s Better Life Lab.
This story about daycare workers was produced by The Hechinger reportan independent, nonprofit news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Register at Hechinger Newsletter.
The article Daycares tap retirees to fill staffing shortages appeared first in the Hechinger Report.
