Sean C. Morgan
Little Promises Daycare opened last week in the old Pleasant Valley Kindergarten building.
?The teachers are just so excited to have these big rooms,? Hutchins, CEO, said. ?Working with the school district has just been a plus all the way.?
Little Promises is leasing the building from School District 55 for $1,000 a month. It moved from three buildings at the Evangelical Church, including the church annex, gym and main building.
Volunteers are helping with repairs and painting. In exchange, the School District cuts Little Promises a break on rent.
Among those who have helped are Pastor John Sills and his wife, Pastor Don Emmert and Weyerhaeuser crews from Bauman and Foster mills. Among them and working on the gym were Bob Dalton, Scott Pruitt, Randy Tuller, John Byler, Lisa Williams, Fred Yunke, Kyle Latimer and John Jensen. Brad Newport donated materials to build a new kitchen.
Melcher Logging and Scott Weld of Sweet Home Sanitation loaned heavy equipment to the daycare.
Darrell May has two jobs. When he finishes his regular job, he goes up to Little Promises and works for hours every night. He salvaged wood from a construction job in Eugene and built cabinets and furniture for the school.
?It?s a step of faith to take on this size of building with our budget,? Hutchins said. ?It?s community help, lots of community help.?
While Little Promises was moving, it became a nonprofit organization operated by a board of directors. Hutchins, formerly the sole proprietor, is on the board.
Carli Erickson is director of admissions, and she?s the first person most will encounter when they call or visit.
The board includes Pastor Don Presont, Wayne Shilts, Nancy Holmes, Candy Johnson, Kay Watts, Bob Keller, Larry Thomas, Connie May, Carli Erickson and Anita Hutchins. Mindy Miner is assistant director.
?I don?t want to see it stop when I retire,? Hutchins said. ?So the best thing was to make it nonprofit.?
Little Promises can serve up to 150 students at a time, Hutchins said. It has about 140 on an average day, and the new building gives them some elbow room.
?We love it,? Hutchins said. ?You can ask the staff, and they love it.?
Not only does the daycare have more space, it is in one building now.
?It?s really neat to listen to (parents) come in,? Hutchins said.
?It?s great,? parent Josh Blachly said. ?I love it, and there?s so much room.?
?That?s just about the typical answer we get,? Hutchins said.
Little Promises is about 22 years old as a preschool with Ruby Miner. In 1989, when the timber industry came under attack and workers were moved into reeducation programs, the daycare was added.
The Sweet Home Evangelical Church helped start it by expanding the annex across Kalmia Street from the main building. The annex was formerly Ozzie Shaw?s surveying office.
?I think they?re (the church) glad to have their space back,? Hutchins said. ?We?ll miss being able to just walk, chase the gingerbread man like we?ve done for years.?
But at Pleasant Valley, the children have a forest to explore, a large open field and more playground equipment. On field trips, they?ll just have to take a van.
?There?s still a few issues with the septic system,? Anita Hutchins said. Preschool and kindergarten are postponed till Sept. 20 so the system can be fixed.
The school?s restrooms are split between two septic tanks, but one down is limiting the capacity of the school.
The school?s first septic tank wasn?t where School District 55?s plans said it was, Hutchins said. ?We had to hunt for it, and now we?re working on getting it corrected.?