Colfax day care fixes finances, state problems

Two months after news broke over their finances and handling of children, Colfax’s Little Angels day care at the Methodist Church in Colfax has made sweeping changes to correct their situation.

In August, Little Angels fired its director for mismanaged finances and days later was notified by the state it was in violation of 25 state guidelines for child care.

Violations included infants left unattended while staff were in other rooms, bottles going unsanitized between uses, food served without the use of gloves or tongs, too many children with too little staff, a child left unattended out on the playground and older children left in rooms with infants longer than the state limit.

In the months since the state informed the church of these problems, Pastor Stephen Johnson worked with the regional day care licensor to correct all violations. They hired a new director, Stephanie Slayton, Oct. 20.

Today, the finances of the four-person office are on the road to stability.

As far as continuing to improve the facility, Slayton said she’d like to get the day care off the six-month probationary license it was given by the state in late August. Her goal is getting the day care back on a regular license.

She’d like to get all three of the other staff qualified with a child development associate certificate (CDA), a certificate that takes up to a year to earn.

Rev. Johnson, who took over as interim director for the day care while the church searched for a replacement, has made physical improvements to the rooms of the day care to get them up to snuff.

Two changing tables built to state standards now stand in the day care, which is housed in the church. He also added a sink in the infant room, new high chairs and new garbage cans. He sealed the lid to the outdoor sand box to keep water out and removed a giant tire from the play area.

The former day care director was fired Aug. 18 after the church discovered she was several months behind on the day care’s bills.

Johnson to date has not publicly commented on the specifics of how the director mismanaged the finances. He mentioned in an interview with the Gazette Monday several clients had not paid their child care bills under the former director’s leadership.

After the news broke in late August, the church was faced with raising a needed $9,500 to save the day care which was faced with the possibility of closing.

Within three weeks, the church congregation had raised the needed amount. Johnson said in order to prevent any further financial problems, they will in January switch the day care to a pre-pay model system.

“I have a list of all the average rates of child care for Whitman County, so I’ll try to put us in that range,” Johnson said.

Slayton had already been working for the day care since mid-September as a lead toddler teacher.

She moved to Colfax from Spokane where she was working as a lead toddler teacher for three years for another day care.

Before this, she operated her own home-based day care for several years at the Fairchild Air Force base.