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In Muskingum County, a creative child care solution keeps teachers in the workforce
By: Amanda Pirani
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NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio (WOUB/Report for America) — When teachers Kevin and Alyssa Board were expecting their first child three years ago, they weren’t sure how they would both continue to teach and coach.
“We talked, like, ‘Shoot, man, we have our first kid on the way, somebody might have to give some of this up,’” Kevin Board said.
They weren’t the only family weighing tough choices — six other teachers were preparing to have children, and many of them weren’t sure they could afford to return to work.
Day care is expensive, and local options were hard to find.
“There was one … we actually signed our child up for, because their waiting list is super long, but then they ended up not having an infant room that year because of staffing issues,” said Alyssa Board.
Then, the superintendent proposed an unexpected solution: a district-funded day care center for teachers and school staff.
MVESC and New Lexington School District offer a creative solution
In August 2023, that day care center opened with the help of the Muskingum Valley Educational Service Center. Lisa Gormley, the MVESC early childhood coordinator, said it was an entirely new venture for the organization.
“We have done their preschool for them for many years, and they trusted us enough to come up with a program,” she said.
In the span of just three months, they transformed underutilized office space into a day care center that serves dozens of parents.
“We started with infants and toddlers,” Gormley said. “Then last year, we added that three to five age group here, so now they can be here from the time that they’re born until they go to kindergarten.”
For families like the Boards, it’s been life-changing.
“We didn’t have another option,” Alyssa Board said. “The fact that it’s here in New Lexington, when our schedules are crazy, it helps with getting them to and from pretty quickly.”
The facility runs on a tri-share model: state grants, participating organizations and parents all pay one-third of the cost of care. That can make a big difference for families.
The average cost of infant care in the state is $13,780 per year, according to Groundwork Ohio.
“It’s powerful,” Superintendent Casey Coffey said. “How much money they’ve saved and being able to stay gainfully employed … that’s a quick math problem, you know?”
For local high school students, the child care center may also be the start of a career in education. Some of the center’s staff include training high school juniors and seniors, who participate as part of a college credit plus program with Muskingum University.
“All of their students, at the end, they come out with a paraprofessional credential, so once they graduate from high school, they … can come back and even sub here,” Gormley said.
MVESC expands child care program to Zanesville
Since opening the child care center in New Lexington, the MVESC has started two additional programs this year.
In south Zanesville, one operates similarly to the center in New Lexington, serving staff at the Maysville school district, Foxfire community schools and MVESC employees.
Little Farmers’ Academy, which opened last week, will be open to the public in north Zanesville to address local demand for child care.
“Child care has been an ongoing need for many years, especially for the infant and toddler population,” said Krystal McFarland, MVESC director of early childhood education.
She hopes that in the future, the MVESC can secure a grant to implement a cost-sharing model for employees of local businesses in Zanesville.
The state will soon pilot its own tri-share program, splitting child care costs with participating employers and parents. Applications for the pilot will remain open until May 1, 2026.