Thank You to our Community Guests

Thank you to the City of Mankato and to our Cultivate parents who volunteered their time to share about your job during our Community Study!

YOU WILL BE RECEIVING A LETTER REGARDING THIS CHANGE SOON

Tuition Update Did You Know?

Effective Nov. 1st, 2021 we will be updating the rates for all families in our program to be the following. Please note that new families who joined our program June 2021 have already been paying these rates so now we are standardizing them across the board and adding a sibling discount model:

Full Time Infant Full Time - $275 Toddler Full Time - $260 Preschool Full Time - $240 Part Time All Programs $75 per day

(not to exceed the weekly cost)

Sibling Discounts (NEW) 2 children = 5% off total weekly cost 3 (+) children = 10% off total weekly cost

I know that tuition increases are really hard to absorb. It’ s hard for me, too. Please know that! I feel like I am letting families down. The current system of child care is not a working and sustainable model for anyone (families, programs, teachers), and I am doing all that I can on the CultivateMN side to help advocate for system change. In the meantime, I have to keep the teachers and program operating at a high level which includes increasing tuition. I understand if, because of this change, we can no longer serve you. We certainly hope that is not the case.

Professional Development

We recently paid $2500 for 16 of our teachers and full time assistants to go through a year long professional development for Creative Curriculum. Through this training, they will continue to enhance skills around curriculum development and implementation, creating developmentally appropriate lessons and aligning objectives, creating differentiated lessons, and working through assessments. These trainings enhance the early education experience each child receives and helps our teachers continue to learn and grow.

Below you will find the average rates for family child care programs and child care centers in MN as of March 2021.

Infants Toddlers Preschoolers

Centers Family Child Care $328/week $172/week $289 $164 $257 $156 www.childcareawaremn.org/community/cost-of-care

COVID-19 Reminder

It is very complicated to navigate COVID right now, even more so than before. In the past we had strict and consistent rules in place as well as funding that allowed us to hire additional staff to help with breaks and lesson planning prep time for our fulltime teachers so that we didn 't have to mix child groups or staff. We also had more access to contact tracing. What we are discovering now as we ' ve moved back to allowing guests and moving staff around the center to accommodate breaks and schedules is that we have cases of "limited" exposure meaning that a person may have been in a certain area for one hour or less (and may have never been within 6 feet of a child) who later tested positive for COVID. Based on this information, we ' ve been directed to use our best judgement when it comes to exposure. Our goal is to keep children safe and keep the center open. We have been transparent and will continue to be transparent when there has been prolonged exposure and limited exposure. If it' s prolonged, we will ask that children are picked up and then analyze the quarantine period (schools can quarantine anywhere between 7 - 14 days) per case. For limited exposure, we will inform parents and then allow families to decide the best course of action for you and your child. We will always ask that you look for symptoms and get tested immediately. We ask for your diligence in being aware of coughs, congestion, sore throats, fever, etc.

Giving Back to Our Community

THIS MONTH'S ORGANIZATION

C U L T I V A T E M N

For our Giving Back to the Community initiative in October we will be raising money and awareness around child care and early education for CultivateMN.

S U P P O R T E A R L Y E D U C A T O R S

& S P R E A D Awareness

D O N A T E $ 2 0 A N D R E C E I V E A Y A R D S I G N O F Y O U R C H O I C E A L L P R O C E E D S B E N E F I T C U L T I V A T E M N W H A T D O E S Y O U R $ 2 0 D O N A T I O N S U P P O R T ?

T E A C H E R T R A I N I N G C O S T S

$ $ 360360

per teacher/ per year

$ $ 180180

per assistant teacher/ per year

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Shout Out to Angela Archer THIS MONTH'SPhotographyORGANIZATION

Thank you Angela Archer Photography for being our photographer 3 years in a row now for our school pictures!

Upcoming Study

Within our education curriculum, we use studies to guide our lesson planning. Studies are a broad concept that we focus on for 4-6 weeks. Currently our study has been about diversity. This month we will begin our Fall Study. If you feel your family has something special to share in regards to our upcoming study, we would love family participation. Reach out!

Some pictures from our Community / All About Me Study the last few weeks.