After learning that businesses in Jackson County were losing $2.5 million a year due to a lack of local childcare, a group of employers came together to create solutions for families in their area.
When Kassidy Gardner talks about the area she grew up in, you can feel a sense of pride. However, the 24-year-old admits there aren’t a lot of amenities in the unincorporated community of Northfield, in Jackson County. “We have a gas station, a bar with a mini motel, mechanic, a legion, two churches—that’s about it.”
But as she speaks, she beams with fond memories.
“It feels wholesome,” she said. “I’d walk to the gas station, and there was a cafe growing up—I’d come eat breakfast with my family and grandparents after church.”
And now, as she sits in the building that was once that very cafe, she’s surrounded by tiny pots and pans. Not the workings of a short-order kitchen—these are children’s toys, and Kassidy says there’s a new addition in town. It’s a daycare center. And she just opened it.
“It just makes my heart happy that I can change a building that has been sitting for a while to a daycare center that will give back to the community,” Kassidy shared. “It’s very necessary in Jackson County—this town is little but there are actually a lot of kids here.”
And of course, as in any small town when something new pops up, there’s a buzz going around.
“My uncle’s on the town board and he gets a lot of questions,” Kassidy said. “My grandparents are part of the legion and the legion ladies meet once a month and they’re asking, ‘Can we come tour that daycare?’
“To see the support is amazing. It’s great to see the community is as happy as I am about it.”
Kassidy’s also getting support from her community in another way: The Jackson County Child Care Network was created to help businesses just like hers.
What is the Jackson County Child Care Network?
Kassidy’s Evergreen Learning Center is one of five child care centers that have opened in Jackson County since 2018. The four others were family (in-home) child care centers.
It’s not a coincidence that in 2018, the Jackson County Child Care Network (JCCCN) formed. The success in growing this necessary childcare piece to the county’s economic puzzle is due in large part to this western Wisconsin group.
Just before the pandemic in 2017, a random chat in the lobby of a Jackson County credit union led two managers—one the CEO of that credit union, and the other the general manager of a local electric utility—to a shared realization.
“The conversation led to, ‘Are your employees struggling with childcare?’” said Marianne Torkelson, chair of the JCCCN. “That’s where it all stemmed.”
Torkelson said they started inviting other business leaders to the conversation. It expanded to include the county’s school superintendents, public health officials, church groups, providers, parents, elected representatives, the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association (WECA), the Wisconsin Department of Families and Children, and more.
From there, Torkelson said the group “morphed into a full task force, then a full nonprofit organization to ease the childcare desert that we have here.”
The group even recently hired a person to facilitate its activities. Micaela Conlon-Bue said,
“I think one of the things the JCCCN has done a beautiful job of is building awareness around the issue.”
“I think having so many people being a portion of the solution relies heavily on our ability to talk about it in ways people can identify themselves as stakeholders.”
“Our successes have been that we have been able to identify the problem uniquely, bring it to the community, and have meaningful conversations, propose new ideas and start to chisel away at the solutions.”
How much was lack of childcare costing?
In collaboration with the 7 Rivers Alliance, JCCCN conducted a survey in 2018 that confirmed Jackson County was a childcare desert, with some parents on waiting lists for more than two years to get their children into a childcare slot. The survey also brought to light a startling expense.
“We found that employers in Jackson County were losing $2.5 million a year in productivity due to childcare,” Torkelson said. “Employees were unable to come to work, they were coming in late—they were unable to work to their full potential while they were working.”
“Many days they would spend their time struggling to find childcare for the next day. Add to that what that did to families. Little kids were going to bed at night not knowing where they were going to go the next day. There was just a lack of consistent quality care for those children.”
Torkelson said the amount of lost productivity “raised some eyebrows.”
“People could really grab hold of what that cost was for the business communities and families.”
Kassidy Gardner said she was one of those parents who struggled. “I had two kids young,” she said. “To be able to work full-time and find childcare was hard.”
“I can’t tell you how many people say, ‘I can’t find childcare—there are waitlists.’”
The local school district got involved
Drew Semingson joined the JCCCN Board when he had just started as superintendent for the Alma Center-Humbird-Merrillan School District.
“It really opened my eyes to the realities of the childcare desert in Jackson County,” he said. “The numbers were really staggering—how many families are not able to have both parents working, or how many grandparents were staying at home to care for kids—they weren’t a part of the workforce, even though they would like to be.”
He knew the schools needed to help find a solution. Aside from being good for the community, Semingson saw that a lack of childcare meant many families would move away to areas where they could work and have reliable care for their kids. And that would translate to fewer students in his schools.
“There is an issue right now in our communities, and if we don’t step up to try to solve it, it’s going to be very hard with the current realities of running a small business, for the private sector to do so,” Semingson said. “Not only are we helping solve an issue for families, we’re solving an issue for businesses as well.”
The school district placed a nearly $3 million school referendum on the November ballot. If passed, it will allow them to add a childcare center onto the elementary school in Merrillan.
“It’ll be a lot of work for us, but we think it’s the right thing to do for our community,” said Semingson.
About 30 minutes away, the Blair-Taylor School District has been running a childcare center since 2021 for about 60-80 kids.
“From the moment we started accepting enrollments, we had a waiting list,” program director Kristin Elvaker said.
Conlon-Bue said they’d like to add 500 childcare slots throughout the county in five years. “I’d say we’re pretty on par for meeting that goal, especially with all of the school participation—we’ll not only meet that goal, but exceed it.”
What are some of the successes?
Conlon-Bue said not only do they have more slots, they haven’t lost any, “which is huge,” as they’ve been able to show appreciation for providers.
Torkelson said that using grant money, they gave retention bonuses to providers.
“Staff working in childcare are paid at a very low rate, and have very limited benefits,” she said. “Family providers average, at the end of the day, $7.25 an hour.”
“We were able to show them how important the work they’re doing is. Most brain development happens from age 0 to 5 and generally those are the years that children are spending outside the K-12 system, and so that quality childcare is very important to prepare kids to go to school.”
“I think we underestimate the lack of funding that’s going into childcare,” Conlon-Bue said. “They’re not making enough.”
“They’re doing most of the work out of the goodness of their hearts—because it’s a passion and because they’re dedicated to kids.”
Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin recently delivered $1 million to the JCCCN to continue expanding access to affordable childcare.
“As we wrote that grant, we were looking at innovative solutions—microcenters, incubators, all kinds of different things, to support not only group centers, but also family providers,” Torkelson said. ”We find in our community, many families prefer that small intimate family provider—so what can we do to make starting your own childcare business easy for providers, how can we support them, how can we give them the tools and the mentoring they need to do that effectively?”
Conlon-Bue added, “Those initial start-up costs can be really overwhelming, so helping buy supplies for curriculum or outdoor toys they need—all these things can ease that initial investment that a provider needs to make.”
In Northfield, Kassidy was able to receive money for play equipment, iPads, and other supplies, plus help beyond those tangible items.
“They gave me a bunch of resources—people to call at all times—a huge helping hand,” Kassidy said. “To be able to have answers and people who are willing to help you—the Jackson County Childcare Network helped me a lot with that.”
Opening the daycare is “life-changing”
To increase capacity and reduce waitlists, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers says a continuing investment in the Child Care Counts Program is needed. Rolled out in 2020 with federal relief dollars, the program has delivered more than $750 million in support to childcare providers to increase wages, provide benefits, expand access, and more.
It has helped more than 5,300 childcare providers keep their doors open, ensuring the employment of 64,500 childcare professionals.
Evers has proposed continuing the Child Care Counts program with $340 million—first in the 2023-25 state budget, and when the Legislature’s Republican majority declined, in a special session bill later in 2023, which also was rejected by the GOP majority.
The Evers administration has since been able to extend Child Care Counts, but at about half its original size, repurposing $170 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds. That has extended the program’s projected lifespan into mid-2025.
If Wisconsinites want more support given to the childcare crisis, there’s something they can do. Of the 33 state Senate seats, 16 are up for election on Tuesday, Nov. 5—including eight in districts with Republican incumbents running. Right now, Republicans hold a 22-10 majority in the chamber.
“I hope the state really keeps their eyes on childcare and realizes how important it is, and maybe Childcare Counts shouldn’t end, or some other form of funding starts going to childcare centers to help support the important work that education and birth to five really does—the brain development that happens in those early years,” said Elvaker.
“To be able to open this daycare—it’s life changing,” Kassidy said. “It’s scary at first, but there is help, and there are resources.”
“It’s worth it in the end to give back to the community and families.”
