Spanish Peaks Child Care Center: the place for kids

by Mary Jo Tesitor
WALSENBURG — Under a generous grant from the Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation, Spanish Peaks Childcare Center in Walsenburg has recently completed furnishing a new room for 5- to 12-year-olds and is now accepting applications for summer daycare.  The room will accomodate 15 children.   
Spanish Peaks Childcare center has been a labor of love for Jeanette Villalobos and her staff for the past two and a half years.  In August of 2012, learning the center was to close, she sought funding from the Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation to improve the facility and provide operating funds.  She called upon fellow retired educators Sherry Pearson, Dianne Hanisch, and Patty Martinez to join her in her quest to create in SPCC not just an adequate place for youngsters to spend their days, but “a true example of loving continuity of care every child should experience.”  All four have Masters’ degrees in education and bring unique talents and experience to the group.  
Assistants Jennifer Torrez and Elizabeth Salas and John Mall High School students Rebecca Suazo and Sarah Encinias, as well as volunteers from the Senior Inc. program complete the SPCC team, working with ages 2 to 12 in a Colorado Shinescenter which has been showcased by the Colorado State Legislature as a role model for other programs across the state.  
Jennifer Sanchez McDonald, Coordinator of HULA Huerfano-Las Animas Counties Early Childhood Advisory Council, is a strong partner in the Center, having been instrumental in obtaining state funding for the program through HB 13-1291.  The Colorado legislature passed HB 13-1291 to  provide communities across the state with funds to increase the quality of infant and toddler child care, increase slots in high quality child care for low-income infants and toddlers, implement tiered reimbursement for Colorado Child Care Assistance Program payments, and promote family engagement in their child’s school.
SPCC boasts a fully appointed kitchen for meal and snack preparation and dedicated rooms for children 1 to 2, 3 to 4, and 5 to 12.  
The next projects in the works are a playground for toddlers, complete with a poured rubber safety base, climber,  and canopy, and one for three and four year olds with a 30 x 25 poured base, canopy, and appropriately sized climber, each with concrete surrounds for wheeled ride-on toys.  These and other projects are made possible by generous grants from the Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation and HULA, and collaboration with the Colorado Childcare Assistance Program (CCAP), the Department of Social Services, Huerfano Re-1 (the Colorado Preschool Program, CCP), Huerfano-Las Animas Health Department, Spanish Peaks Library District, and Sangre de Cristo Center for Youth.
The SPCC charges by the day, not the week, and accepts part time and drop-in children. They work with the court system to provide free daycare for parents on jury duty, and do in-house special needs screening and referral.
Villalobos and her staff invite the community to visit the center, located at 100 West Spruce in Walsenburg.  
Hours of operation are 7 am to 5:15 pm Monday through Friday.  The center is licensed for up to 58, so stop by today to find the perfect enriched environment for your child’s care.