There is a serious childcare crisis in Park City, both in capacity and affordability.
We have been so unbelievably fortunate to have depended on PC Tots for the last 5.5 years. We are two full-time working parents who work in Park City. We got on the waitlist for our first child at 8 weeks pregnant. We were accepted 11 months after being on the waitlist...this was in 2017. Fast forward to 2019, our second child was on the way and we got on the waitlist at 4 weeks pregnant. We were finally accepted after 12 months on the waitlist, solely because there was a sibling enrolled at the same school (school policy to give priority). Then COVID... PC Tots closed for 4 months and we were forced to find alternate childcare during that time while we attempted to work full-time. At the end of the day, one parent's take-home pay was $1/hour after paying a babysitter to continue to work to maintain insurance benefits for the whole family.
Had we not been so fortunate to secure childcare, back in 2017 when we started at PC Tots, one parent would have been forced to leave the workforce. This is unacceptable in a community where we seem to have solutions to most every problem, though this continues to persist.
Hurdles include (other than the sheer lack of capacity):
-Unrealistic school hours. Some schools run from 8:30 am-2:45 pm...where do the kids go for the rest of the work day? A 40-hour work week is not 9 am-2:30 pm...
-Unrealistic school calendar. I haven't yet come across a full-time working model where two working-parent households get the whole summer off.
The dream would be for every single child in Park City to access childcare at an affordable cost. If the community can raise $5.2 million in one single day (Live PC Give PC, 2022), we can accomplish anything...what better place to start than with kids, the future of our community?
Please look closely at and remedy the childcare crisis occurring in Park City. We will lose valuable workforce, including teachers and coaches, if the lack of childcare in PC isn’t addressed.
There is a serious childcare crisis in Park City, both in capacity and affordability.
We have been so unbelievably fortunate to have depended on PC Tots for the last 5.5 years. We are two full-time working parents who work in Park City. We got on the waitlist for our first child at 8 weeks pregnant. We were accepted 11 months after being on the waitlist...this was in 2017. Fast forward to 2019, our second child was on the way and we got on the waitlist at 4 weeks pregnant. We were finally accepted after 12 months on the waitlist, solely because there was a sibling enrolled at the same school (school policy to give priority). Then COVID... PC Tots closed for 4 months and we were forced to find alternate childcare during that time while we attempted to work full-time. At the end of the day, one parent's take-home pay was $1/hour after paying a babysitter to continue to work to maintain insurance benefits for the whole family.
Had we not been so fortunate to secure childcare, back in 2017 when we started at PC Tots, one parent would have been forced to leave the workforce. This is unacceptable in a community where we seem to have solutions to most every problem, though this continues to persist.
Hurdles include (other than the sheer lack of capacity):
-Unrealistic school hours. Some schools run from 8:30 am-2:45 pm...where do the kids go for the rest of the work day? A 40-hour work week is not 9 am-2:30 pm...
-Unrealistic school calendar. I haven't yet come across a full-time working model where two working-parent households get the whole summer off.
The dream would be for every single child in Park City to access childcare at an affordable cost. If the community can raise $5.2 million in one single day (Live PC Give PC, 2022), we can accomplish anything...what better place to start than with kids, the future of our community?
Karen Riley
Please look closely at and remedy the childcare crisis occurring in Park City. We will lose valuable workforce, including teachers and coaches, if the lack of childcare in PC isn’t addressed.