Early Education Archives

Early Education Seeks Innovative Solutions to Attract a Workforce

By Joseph Bednar June 7, 2024

Earning and Learning

Dawn DiStefano, seen here with a group of Square One kids, says early education isn’t a career for everyone, but those with the right mindset and heart for it will find robust opportunities there.

Dawn DiStefano says early education is “not a career path for the faint of heart,” or something to just settle on.

But for the right person, she added, it can be highly rewarding.

“You’ve got to have the interest and skills and tenacity and heart to want to work with young children. You can’t be, ‘there’s nothing else I want to do, so I’ll try my hand in childcare,’” said DiStefano, president and CEO of Square One, quickly adding that someone with those qualities she mentioned will find a field bursting with opportunity.

“If people don’t want to work in the early-education and childcare space, it prohibits others from going to work,” she said. “Businesses are hiring, and people want to go to work, but they need a place for their children to be.”

Recognizing challenges in the early-education space, the state established what’s known as the Early Education and Child Care Task Force earlier this year, focusing on the essential role childcare plays in driving the state’s economy and competitiveness — and, for that matter, the health and well-being of its families.

“Affordable, accessible, and quality childcare is a significant infrastructure needed in Massachusetts, and an imperative to drive the state’s economic competitiveness,” Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Lauren Jones said when the program was announced. “I look forward to working with my colleagues across government and with business and community partners to build a strong pipeline of early childhood educators and also enhance the system to encourage our untapped talent to fully participate in our workforce.”

“If people don’t want to work in the early-education and childcare space, it prohibits others from going to work. Businesses are hiring, and people want to go to work, but they need a place for their children to be.”

The pipeline has been solid at Square One, DiStefano said.

“Why do people want to work here? It’s not like our kids are any easier than other kids; they’re all children. But a lot of it has to do with the culture and environment at Square One. We invest in you early on, whether as a young person, just starting out in your career, or as an older adult with a midlife change of heart.”

While entry-level wages aren’t the main draw in any early-education setting, she added, Square One lays out the long-term picture. “We say, ‘here’s the career pathway. Here’s what it looks like, and we’ll be flexible with your schedule, if you want to take advantage of free classes at HCC and STCC.’”

Indeed, in recent years, the state has been actively investing in early education in a number of ways, including free programs at its 15 community colleges through the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care’s (EEC) Career Pathways Grant.

One of those, the Family Childcare Institute at Springfield Technical Community College, is currently running June 3 through July 9.

“This is a three-course bundle that will help new family childcare providers get licensed and learn how to run a childcare program in their home,” said Nancy Ward, Career Pathways Grant and Activity director at STCC. “We see this as a great opportunity for anyone who wants to open their own home-based childcare center.”

Christopher Thuot, vice president of Academic Affairs at STCC, added that such programs reduce barriers to help people in the community obtain an education. “The flexibility of the program accommodates individuals with varying schedules and commitments.”

State of Urgency

Meanwhile, applications for the state’s Early Childhood Educators scholarship are now open for the 2024-25 academic year. This scholarship is available for educators who work at programs licensed and/or funded by the EEC, including center-based, family childcare, and out-of-school-time programs.

And for the first time, the scholarship is available for staff who work at residential programs licensed by the EEC. The application process has also been simplified, and eligible majors have been expanded to better support career pathways for out-of-school-time educators.

“We know that far too many parents find it difficult to return to the workforce because of the high cost of childcare, and providers are facing the difficult decision between continuing in the profession they love or leaving for a higher-paid career.”

“Our administration is fully committed to supporting and expanding the early-education and care workforce. When programs have high-quality educators, they can offer better care to even more families,” Gov. Maura Healey said. “I know these important changes to the Early Childhood Educators scholarship will strengthen our supports for our hardworking afterschool educators and residential program staff, positively reinforcing a pipeline of high-quality early-education professionals.”

More than 500 scholarships were awarded for the 2023-24 academic year, an increase over the number awarded in the previous year. As of this year, the scholarship now covers additional majors, including human services, psychology, social work, elementary education, and special education.

“Our Early Childhood Educators scholarship supports educators and program leaders to advance their careers and ensure that our youngest learners are receiving the highest-quality education they deserve, setting them up for school and lifetime success,” Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler said. “I am grateful to our departments of Early Education and Care and Higher Education for their partnership and collaboration with early educators and community partners in making this scholarship even better, reflecting current higher-education pathways and expanding access in a simpler way.”

As noted earlier, the state has also established the Early Education and Child Care Task Force, recognizing the role childcare plays in driving the state’s economy and competitiveness — at a time when keeping residents and businesses from fleeing the Commonwealth, for reasons ranging from housing to cost of living, has become a significant concern.

“If you support folks, get them into the industry by paying them to learn, they’ll probably be more motivated to work for you full-time as an employee. And in our field, we are desperate to strengthen our workforce.”

“We know that far too many parents find it difficult to return to the workforce because of the high cost of childcare, and providers are facing the difficult decision between continuing in the profession they love or leaving for a higher-paid career,” Healey said. “Childcare is central to the success of our entire state — for affordability, education, workforce, equity, and our economic potential — and together we are taking important steps toward solutions.”

The Early Education and Child Care Task Force will engage with industry and business leaders, organized labor, health-services stakeholders, housing and planning experts, working parents and caregivers, and childcare providers and experts in order to craft recommendations aligned with the following five policy objectives:

• Surveying practices of other states in reducing costs, increasing capacity, and improving quality of childcare providers and making recommendations for how such practices could be adopted in Massachusetts;

• Assessing how better coordination among state agencies could support families in accessing childcare that meets their needs, including through technology improvements;

• Identifying resources for building capacity and increasing affordability in the state’s mixed-delivery childcare system, including from the federal government, the philanthropic community, and employers, which may include exploring incentives for employers to assist employees with child care;

• Identifying strategies to recruit, train, upskill, and retain members of the childcare workforce, including by expanding apprenticeship initiatives, higher-education programs, and training opportunities; and

• Reviewing existing assets to identify potential locations to establish center-based care.

“Childcare and early education are critical enablers for economic growth in Massachusetts,” Secretary of Economic Development Yvonne Hao said. “Through this task force, the administration will take a whole-of-government approach to ensure that the state has equitable childcare solutions to meet the needs of the workforce and economy, making Massachusetts the best place to raise a family, grow a business, and succeed in a fulfilling career.”

Thinking Outside the Box

DiStefano said she’s excited about a new, state-level push for an apprenticeship model for early education, similar to buiding trades like electrical, plumbing, carpentry, and HVAC, where young people are paid to gain experience as they learn.

“People need to work and earn a living. People do not want to go to a four-year college and come out with debt for a $17-an-hour job. And we know our industry doesn’t start off very strong with hourly wage,” she noted. “So you’ve got to be creative. I’m excited about this potential apprenticeship model, where you’re paid to learn.

“It’s a balance, much like in other trades, like plumbing or electricity, where you go to work and you’re also training in the classroom to strengthen your formal education. And you’re getting paid to do all that, whether it’s by the business community or the philanthropic community or in a government-supported way.

“If you support folks, get them into the industry by paying them to learn, they’ll probably be more motivated to work for you full-time as an employee,” she went on. “And in our field, we are desperate to strengthen our workforce.”

What seems to be emerging, DiStefano said, is a realization that statewide investments in early education will pay off exponentially in the broader economy, allowing parents to work and businesses to retain talent.

And whether it’s through expanded scholarships, free community-college programs, or innovative apprenticeship initiatives, the impact is the same: more people able to work, learn, and generate income while doing it.

“There’s no better selling point,” she told BusinessWest. “The field of childcare and early learning is looking at the model of the trades and saying, ‘maybe we can do that.’ So I’m excited about the changes in our workforce development. This is an exciting moment to be in this field.”

Square One Moves Forward with New Facility in Springfield’s South End

By George O'Brien August 3, 2023

Nonprofit Management Special Coverage

Building on a Legacy

This aerial photo shows the former Square One property, at lower right, the day after the tornado ripped through Springfield’s South End in 2011.
Photo by John Suchocki The Republican

While early-education provider Square One has a presence in several Springfield neighborhoods and serves residents city-wide, it has always been associated with the South End.

That’s where it’s been headquartered since the beginning, in 1883, when it was founded as Springfield Day Nursery by Harriett Merriam, the daughter of Charles Merriam, of Merriam-Webster dictionary fame, to meet a critical need for childcare among the city’s working families, said Dawn DiStefano, the agency’s president and CEO.

“We’ve always been anchored in the South End,” she said. “And it doesn’t take too much effort to walk into the South End and see that it is in woeful need of some attention.”

The bond with the South End was — and is — so strong that, when the agency’s facilities at 947 Main St. were heavily damaged by the June 1, 2011 tornado that devastated a large swath of that neighborhood and eventually razed, then-President and CEO Joan Kagan quickly pledged that the agency, which soon started leasing space at 1095 Main St., would rebuild in that section of the city.

But fulfilling that pledge has proven to be an enormous challenge.

“We’ve always been anchored in the South End. And it doesn’t take too much effort to walk into the South End and see that it is in woeful need of some attention.”

Indeed, although other options were looked at early on, it quickly became clear that, if the agency was going to rebuild in the South End, it would have to be on the property it owned, DiStefano said. And this property is fraught with challenges because of its small size, odd dimensions, contamination in the wake of the tornado, and other factors.

But, in a measure of its commitment to the South End, the agency is taking on all those challenges and moving forward with plans for a 26,000-square-foot, $12 million, three-story facility that will be built on the east end of the property that fronts Main Street.

Dawn DiStefano stands at the site on Main Street where Square One had a facility — and will again.

Plans call for erecting a Butler-style building on the property, one that features a number of pre-fabricated elements, which serves to reduce the overall cost of designing and building a structure, DiStefano said.

“We’re savings millions of dollars because we’re not doing a traditional brick-and-mortar building,” she explained, adding that the agency is working with One Development & Construction LLC in Westfield, which specializes in Butler-style construction, on the project.

The current timetable calls for construction to begin late this year, probably November, with the new facility slated to open its doors in the fall of 2024.

The agency is in the early — also known as the ‘quiet’ — stage of a capital campaign for the new building, with nearly $3 million committed to date — $950,000 from the city in the form of ARPA money, and a $2 million commitment from the state.

DiStefano said early indications suggest a strong measure of support for Square One’s initiative, and she expects the nonprofit will be able to open its facility with little, if any, debt.

“It’s all achievable … but we’re not working with 10 acres here. We ultimately determined that we could do something with this site.”

“The most enjoyable, and most encouraging, part of this project has been how many people and institutions are compelled to give or have shown promise,” she explained, adding that the agency undertook a feasibility study on the campaign, one that surveyed 42 individuals and companies and revealed “100% intent to support the project.”

For this issue and its focus on the region’s nonprofit sector, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at Square One’s building plans and how they reflect a nearly century-and-a-half-old commitment to a city and especially one of its proudest, and neediest, neighborhoods.

Building Momentum

As she talked about the many challenges with building a new home for Square One, DiStefano said it’s good to keep things in their proper perspective.

Indeed, while there has been nothing easy about this building project, and it has a long way to go, the overall degree of difficulty pales in comparison — in most respects, anyway — with coming back from the twin disasters of 2011 and 2012 — and coping with the pandemic of 2020, for that matter.

The agency was completely displaced by the 2011 tornado; staff, teachers, and students were forced from the building and never allowed to return before engineers determined that it had to be demolished. In 2012, a natural-gas explosion downtown extensively damaged another Square One learning facility, to the point where it had to be abandoned. And early in the pandemic, Square One was forced to close its childcare facilities, as well as its operations on Main Street, before having to completely revamp operations after it was allowed to reopen to meet a huge need for childcare services.

An architect’s rendering of Square One’s facility to be built in Springfield’s South End.

The agency managed to push on and meet its broad mission — it provides early-learning services to more than 500 infants, toddlers, and school-aged children, and also offers an array of support services to more than 1,500 families each year — through all of that, DiStefano said, adding that the ability to do so offers strong testimony to the imagination and resiliency of its staff.

Those same qualities have been necessary for this building project, she went on, adding that, while rebuilding in the South End has always been the goal and the promise, it has proven to be a daunting challenge.

Indeed, the property that was ultimately destroyed by the tornado in 2011 was wedged into a narrow but deep lot, said DiStefano noted there was an administration building fronting Main Street and a two-story, L-shaped school building that extended eastward a few hundred feet. In a perfect world, or at least in a neighborhood with several alternatives when it comes to buildable lots and available property, Square One almost certainly wouldn’t rebuild on its former site, she added.

But this isn’t a perfect world. And Square One is building here only because there are few if any other options, she said, adding that she tried to purchase the brick property adjacent to former home of the agency, a move that would have provided considerably more frontage on Main Street, but was unsuccessful in that effort, just as her predecessor was unsuccessful in her efforts to secure other lots on which to build.

So the agency then focused its attention on building on its former home — an undertaking made challenging by the size and shape of the property as well as contamination from the demolition of the structures that once occupied the site.

“The bricks and all the materials from the homes that were razed obviously have asbestos and lead and other chemicals that have now seeped into the ground,” the explained, adding that the agency is currently working with a remediation company to determine just what is in the ground and what needs to be done to make the property ready for its intended use — as a home for programs for children.

Before even getting to that point, though, the agency had to conduct some due diligence to make sure it was feasible to build what it wanted to build on that parcel.

“This land is so awkward and small and weird that we didn’t want to buy it if we couldn’t build a building on it,” she explained, adding that Square One engaged in discussions with One Development to determine if its plan, its dream, was, in fact, doable.

Brad Miller, senior project manager with One Development, said that he and others ultimately determined that the answer to that question is ‘yes.’

“It is a challenging site because of its narrowness — it’s wedged between Hubbard and Williams streets,” he explained. “We only have so many options as far as the building footprint goes. The agency also needs a certain number of parking spaces, which we have to find a location for on that site, as well as a playground. It’s all achievable … but we’re not working with 10 acres here. We ultimately determined that we could do something with this site.”

The plans, still to be finalized, call for those parking spaces to be located on the Main Street end of the property, with the playground and building located toward the rear of the site, on a combination of the original site and a few smaller parcels acquired by the agency, DiStefano explained.

The planned structure will give the agency far more space than it has presently in the South End, she said, adding that the facility destroyed by the tornado had more classrooms than the currently facility.

Miller described what is planned for the site as a ‘Butler-hybrid’ building, a combination of conventional steel structure, with Butler components on the interior.

“This will a be steel-framed building with insulated metal panels on the outside, as well as some masonry on the first floor of the building,” he explained, adding that it will have a glass entranceway.

This pre-engineered building will ultimately save on design costs, he went on, adding that this is a design-build project, with One Development managing a large portion of the design as well as the construction.

While work continues on design aspects of the building project, Square One is proceeding with its capital campaign to raise funds to build the new facility.

As noted earlier, the agency has entered the quiet phase of the campaign, focusing on major grants from foundations and other donors, DiStefano said, adding that, by the start of 2024, she anticipates the process will enter the public phase.

Bottom Line

Returning to that feasibility study on the capital campaign and the resounding support it revealed, DiStefano said those results validate the agency’s determination to clear a long row of hurdles and ultimately build in the neighborhood where it was founded back when Chester A. Arthur was patrolling the White House.

“Those results make it enjoyable — that pushes you when you’re ready to say that this piece of land is too difficult to build on and it’s going to cost too much to do this,” she said, adding that this vote of confidence provides another dose of determination.

And even more commitment for Square One to build on a legacy that’s been 140 years in the making.

Sen. Lesser Appointed to Senate Vice-chair of Early Education and Care Economic Review Commission

By BusinessWest Staff April 22, 2021

Daily News

This week, state Sen. Eric Lesser attended the inaugural meeting of the Early Education and Care Economic Review Commission in his new role as Senate vice-chair. The commission was established in the FY21 budget, and as Senate chair of the Committee on Economic Development, Lesser was appointed Senate Vice-chair.

The commission is tasked with investigating cost, availability, and other concerns surrounding early education and childcare, a growing issue for the Commonwealth’s working families. Since the pandemic hit, the issues of childcare and working life have grown in urgency, with approximately 750,000 children in Massachusetts living in households where both parents work full time and a state childcare system with the capacity for approximately 230,000 children.

“The first forum on the state of childcare in Massachusetts was eye-opening. As noted in the hearing, childcare is a critical enabler of employment and economic growth across our Commonwealth, especially as we recover from the pandemic,” said Lesser. “I am looking forward to working to address these issues with co-chairs Peisch and Lewis as well as other commission members to invest in our childcare workforce, improve funding models, increase pathways to the childcare workforce, and increase equity for families and providers.”

Early Education Seeks Innovative Solutions to Attract a Workforce