BY MIKE TAYLOR
Walnut – The New Mt. SAC Child Development Center plays a dual role in education. Imagine a service that allows people to return to school, provides quality childcare, and serves as a hands-on training facility. That’s exactly what Mt. San Antonio College‘s new Child Development Center will offer the college community’s children, students, and families.
“Moving into a larger, modern facility allows us serve more children and more students,” said Mt. SAC Child Development Center Director, Tamika Addison, about the new center that opened to students last spring and open for childcare a month ago.
The 33,800-square foot, four-building complex houses child development classrooms, labs, observation spaces, and other required facilities to provide quality education and childcare for up to 162 children, infants to five years of age.
Mt. SAC celebrated the grand opening of the Child Development Center’s new complex (Building 70) with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Fri., Sept. 26. Assemblyman Curt Hagman, Senator Bob Huff, and college administrators were on hand for the ceremony.
“Childcare is sometimes the biggest barrier for people who want to return to college and continue their education,” said Addison, who added that over 200 families will use the childcare services they offer each semester.
But the center’s services are much more than babysitting or just watching the children.
“We are concerned with their early education as well. We work with the whole child,” said Addison. “We prepare the children to do well later in school in kindergarten and elementary school.”
The childcare program at Mt. SAC has received national accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children, which serves as the program’s seal of approval as a quality childcare center. Each semester, there is a waiting list of about 150 for people who want to get their children into the program.
The center is also one of very few childcare centers that offer subsidized programs for families that qualify. Between 18 and 25 percent of most families’ income is spent on childcare. For some families, that subsidy, offered through three sources including the Department of Education, is a lifesaver. A subsidized food program offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture is also available for children.
In another role, the center also serves as a training facility for more than 50 child development students every semester who serve as assistant teachers and received practical, hands-on training.
“We are training the area’s future childcare workers,” Addison said.
Once they finish the program, the students will fill childcare positions with programs like Head Start, and will be in demand because of the training they have received.
“The childcare field is constantly growing, and because of the need for trained childcare workers, childcare centers and programs like this are in demand,” said Addison.
According to Employment Development Department statistics, new job growth in the area of childcare is up 46 percent in California, and the childcare field is ranked in the top 50 fastest growing job fields in the state.
“The jobs are there. The question is, can we meet the demand,” she said.
The grand opening for the complex comes more than four years after its groundbreaking in June 2010. The $18.5-million complex was the first of the campus construction projects funded under the college’s $353 million Measure RR bond.
