NEWS The Vivian Olum Child Development Center works to provide childcare for faculty and staff at the University of Oregon in Eugene, as seen on Jan. 5, 2022. (Isaac Wasserman/Emerald)
UO CARE FACILITIES STILL LIMITED AFTER COVID-19 Closures and operational changes due to COVID-19 have had lasting effects on UO’s child care centers and those who need them. BY ABBY SOURWINE Maria Escallón, an assistant professor of anthropology, came to the University of Oregon in 2016 while pregnant with her daughter. She made use of the Vivian Olum Child Development Center until its closure in March of 2020 due to COVID-19. Escallón and her husband, an assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental studies at UO, spent the next 18 months homeschooling their daughter, splitting time between teaching and research responsibilities and care responsibilities. While UO’s care facilities are slowly rebuilding their capacity to accommodate pre-pandemic volumes of children safely, they face struggles with hiring and retention, as well as paying attention to the mental and emotional health of both staff and those they care for, Rachel Jefferson, director of the Co-Op Family Center, said. Meanwhile, UO community members who spend more time giving care face career setbacks with little support, Escallón said. Jefferson said the Co-Op was closed from August to November of 2020. “We did a soft opening, so we had less hours, less staff, less kids, less classrooms at the beginning, and we've slowly been growing ourselves back,” she said. Aside from the school-age aftercare program returning next term, all six programs are running with limited hours and lower enrollment. While the Co-Op can normally accommodate up to 85 children in a day, it currently serves between 50 and 60, Jefferson said.
Escallón said finding care in Eugene is always difficult, and COVID-19 made it even harder. She said she is just hearing back from care options in Eugene she contacted when she was pregnant five years ago. Caregivers have a lot more to weigh when it comes to care facilities due to COVID-19. She said she held off on re-enrolling her daughter at Olum for several months due to safety concerns. Jefferson, also concerned for safety, said the Co-Op can only accommodate as many children as staff can safely and appropriately support, and the Co-Op continues to struggle with staffing and hiring. “For a full year there were only two admin doing the work of four in our office and now we have three during the work of four,” Jefferson said. “I'm personally the new director but I'm also still being the pedagogy coordinator. We have absolutely no access to substitute teachers.” The lack of substitute teachers and appropriate staffing can be an issue because taking time off for illness is essential for everyone’s safety, Jefferson said. “A shortage of qualified caregivers continues to pose unique challenges for the university’s child care centers,” UO spokesperson Kay Jarvis said in an email. “The university continues to seek qualified caregivers and we are speaking with our families and staff, in search of interim solutions in an effort to continue providing this vital service to our students and employees.”
Jefferson said the Co-Op needs two more lead teachers and two more teaching assistants to get to a point where increasing enrollment would be feasible. Aside from the numbers, many staff members are tired. “We're seeing a lot of challenges around children that are having a hard time and presenting that through challenging behaviors in the classroom, which then can be overwhelming for the staff,” Jefferson said. “They need more support and more training, which we're trying our best to do.” Supporting staff through hiring and training comes at a cost, though, and the Co-Op has “not been operating in the black many months out of the year,” Jefferson said, and is not in the financial position to hire positions with benefits. Plus, the wage the center could offer is not competitive for the skill level of the job. The annual salary of an early childhood assistant at Olum is around $28,600, according to the UO Office of Institutional Research. “UO has expanded its efforts to retain and recruit full-time, part-time and student positions in the midst of staffing shortages being experienced across the country,” Jarvis said in an email. “These efforts include offering bonuses for qualified applicant referrals, retention bonuses, and pay increases.” Through Early Learning Division grants, the Co-Op has begun to offer bonuses to staff. The most recent ELD grant applied to bonuses lasts until April, and F R I D AY, J A N U A R Y 7 , 2 0 2 2
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