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Show Davis on-site child care wins governor's award the district. Tuition of approximately $185 per month is paid by the parents. This tuition pays the salaries of the child care coordinators and assistants and purchases food and other supplies for the centers. " " ""IU1""JI 'W'llBi'11 f - ' '' V i V ' ;. ' L4 . - : f - : ' ' j? r--- y x v . , -1- - - 2 -i r 1 y - - $ FARMINGTON-Coloring, writing your name, building homes for potato bugs and getting along with friends, these are some of the things children of Davis School District employees learn in the district's on-site child care facilities located at Viewmont, Davis and Woods Cross high schools. Respect, admiration and love for children are lessons taught by these : z children to the high school students who learn to care for them through the unique child development pro-. pro-. - gram now beginning its fifth year .'; Davis County. The district's program provides ; t child care for the children of district : employees at any one of the three high schools. High school students : care for these children under the supervision of a child care coor- dinator as part of their child de velopment classroom experience, i 41 Our goal was to develop a pro- 1 gram that would be beneficial for 5 students in child development and ' Z occupational child care classes," l said Lynn Trenbeath, director of the Of district's home economics program. : "With the growing number of :-:r? single parent families and families ; with two working parents, the need . for good child care has increased c, dramatically. "I feel our biggest service is that we are providing the public with well trained child care workers," continued Trenbeath. J Marie Barber, head of the home ecomomics department at Davis High, helped spearhead the district's efforts to implement the child care programs five years ago. "Our main goal is to teach students information, skills and attitudes at-titudes that, hopefully, they will be able to put into practice with the children," said Barber. S "The challenge that students face is lack of experience. We try to teach them to look at children objectively ob-jectively and, instead of getting angry, ask themselves why the child I acted the way he or she did. X "Our students learn that kids aren't so dumb; they just have less experience." The students aren't the only ones who learn from the child care program. pro-gram. The children themselves are receiving re-ceiving an education. Cathi Allen, Viewmont's child care coordinator, said, "Little kidi get lots and lots of self-confidence building experiences." Antonella Tomow's daughter Jessica attends preschool at Woods Cross High. Jessica has cerebral palsy and is part of a district-wide effort to mainstream "special needs" students. "It's very good for my daughter to be involved socially with the other kids," said Tomow who has attended preschool with her daughter during the first week to help her adjust. "After her first day, she came home and talked about everyone. She said Tm a big girl, call daddy.' Jessica called to her mother from the drawing table where her high school student instructor had been working with her, exclaiming with glee, "Mommy, I spelled my name!" The children are not the only ones who benefit from the child care program; the high school students who help teach preschool and care for the infants learn to see children in a different way. Valerie Orner is a senior at Viewmont High School. This is her second year in the child development de-velopment program. Omer said she wanted to take child development classes and work with the children simply because she enjoys being with them. "I'm not really looking to make a career in child care," said Omer. "I like children. "They are really smart in their own way. We try to teach them the basic things they need to know in society, to be gentle and help others." Woods Cross' child care coordinator coor-dinator Alice Breckenridge said that students who work in the child care center get to see their teachers in a different role as parents. According Accor-ding to Trenbeath, during the last four years, over 700 high school students have received hands-on training in one of these high school child care facilities. The program originated at Viewmont High and has expanded to Davis and Woods Cross high schools. The three sites currentlv provide day care for approximately 90 children ranging from infants to toddlers. 1 In recognition of the district s ! pioneering efforts in child care. Woods Cross High School student Brandi Meyers listens as Haylee Haning and Whitney Hadlow explain their latest crayon masterpieces. The Davis County School District combines learning with hands-on training to prepare competent and certified child care workers and provide affordable affor-dable child care to district employees. Davis County's program was awarded the governor's award for corporate excellence. 4T recieved an invitation from the office of economic development to submit an application for the award, and we won, said Trenbeath. The award was presented Aug. 7 in a breakfast ceremony held at tl Marriott hotel in Salt Lake. According to Trenbeath, the pr gram is not supported financially 1 i |
