New Silverthorne facility is just a drop in the Summit County child care desert
Right now there are an estimated 600 kids on a waitlist to get into child care in Summit County. Thankfully, some of them are about to go to the new child care facility Wildflower Nature School.
The school just had its ribbon cutting earlier this week and will be able to incorporate between 65 to around 100 families once it is fully up and running.
"Our 3½-year-old has been on a waitlist for Pre-K since before she was born," parent A.J. Brinckerhoff said at the open house. "We put her on the waitlist when my wife was about 4 months pregnant."
Tiernan Gannon, executive director of Wildflower Nature School, said she knows how big of a deal this is for Summit County, especially the parents in Silverthorne.
"The Town of Silverthorne and Summit County Government have really put all of their eggs into a basket for this one, the Town of Silverthorne is giving us the land here (for free). Summit County has given funding through the strong futures funding and the town donated money, too," said Gannon.
That's partially because it's what the public desperately needs. It's also because it's what the county and town desperately need to keep people living here and growing families and stop Summit County from becoming a vacation ghost town.
"What I always say about childcare is that it is an economic driver," Elisabeth Lawrence, Summit County Commissioner said. "This supports our businesses in the best way, when parents have a safe quality place to put their kids they can go to work."
The plan started for the Wildflower Nature School back in 2018, but the pandemic and building challenges have pushed the project back until now. Considering Gannon said the last time a large child care facility was built was in 2009, this was a huge step that could not have come soon enough. Every single child receiving child care counts.
"I have home-childcare provider friends that as much as they want to work for me, they can't because it will decrease the number of slots available in this county," Gannon said.
There is still a waitlist for kids to get into the school with priority given to children of faculty members, then siblings of current students, then kids in the surrounding areas.