United Way raising funds for preschool center plan
Vacant Kaune school could benefit if voters OK city’s proposed soda tax
EDUCATION
As proponents of early childhood education hold out hope that a proposed beverage tax eventually will provide money to expand such programs in the city of Santa Fe, the United Way of Santa Fe County is asking for financial support for its plans to renovate the vacant Kaune Elementary School building into a preschool center.
“It couldn’t have worked out better for the United Way,” board member Keith Burks told about 55 people who had gathered at the building Tuesday for a tour and open house event spotlighting the nonprofit’s plans. The city’s initiative, he said, “shines a light on the need and power of early childhood education.”
No one at the event specifically mentioned the city’s proposed 2 cents-per-ounce tax on sugarsweetened beverages, which Santa Fe voters will decide on during a special election May 2. But revenues from the tax could benefit the future United Way Early Learning Center at Kaune. The center would be eligible to apply for the city’s prekindergarten funds to help cover the costs of its full-day programs for 3- and 4-year-olds.
Most reports on early childhood education — not just preschool but also high-quality day care and home-visiting programs for families with new infants — say they pay off down the line through higher test scores, higher graduation rates and lower juvenile incarceration rates.
Former CIA agent and Santa Fe mom Valerie Plame Wilson spoke at Tuesday’s event, saying home-visiting programs like one run by United Way help parents in many ways.
“For babies to do OK, mom and dad have to do really well,” said Plame Wilson, who wrote about her own experience with postpartum depression in her autobiography, Fair Game.
After giving birth to her twins, she said, she was knocked “on my knees. I had no idea what was happening to me.” She said she wished a professional early childhood educator had come by to help her adapt to her most important job — mother.
The United Way launched a $7 million capital campaign to purchase Kaune Elementary School from the Santa Fe school district for just over $3 million and renovate it to serve children from 6 weeks to 5 years old. The elementary, which opened in 1949, closed in 2010.
Katherine Freeman, president and CEO of United Way, said the organization is now working to raise $500,000 to build a child care center for infants by the end of the year. Then the organization will update classrooms to accommodate pre-K programs for kids ages 3 to 5.
Finally, in Phase 3 of the project, United Way will create an adult learning institute, offering professional development to early childhood educators to help improve the quality of teaching.
Plame Wilson told the crowd that just by talking about United Way’s, plan, the “amplification effect” can make a difference in drawing attention and possibly financial support for the project.
“We are asking your help in carrying us over our finish line,” she said.
United Way of Santa Fe County runs pre-K classrooms at the Aspen Community Magnet School campus and Ramirez Thomas Elementary School.
Once the Early Learning Center at Kaune is fully operating, Freeman said, “We can reach so many more.”