Interlochen Center for the Arts to open day care at former elementary school

Jun. 26—INTERLOCHEN — Interlochen Center for the Arts plans to open a child care center for 1- to 12-year-olds in the former Interlochen Community School building.

The day care will be a collaboration between ICA and Pitter Patter Preschool and Childcare that will initially offer 42 slots for families in the area. Pitter Patter, which currently has two locations in Kingsley, will lease out three classrooms in the Interlochen school building.

The tentative start date for the program is sometime in September, said Pat Kessel, ICA vice president of finance and operations. The start date is dependent on inspections getting done by state agencies, many of which are understaffed.

Parents can begin applying for the program sometime within the next 30 days, Kessel said. Those looking to sign their children up can check the ICA website for updates on registration. ICA employees will be given priority, which will likely take up half of those 42 slots, Kessel said.

The pricing for the day care has yet to be determined because ICA and Pitter Patter have not solidified the details of their partnership or the lease agreement.

In July 2020, Interlochen employees began expressing an interest in more day care opportunities near the academy. One employee raved about Pitter Patter, where they had been sending their children, Kessel said.

When ICA regained ownership of the Interlochen school building, ICA officials began to seriously consider putting a day care in and decided it would be smart to work with an organization that has experience in the day care industry, Kessel said.

"We know in general, in the community at-large, there's been a shortage of day care as well," Kessel said. "So, we thought we would not only help our employees, but we'd also help the community as well, as they drive all over the place to find day care and/or they can't find day care at all."

Pitter Patter has a somewhat unique approach to child care, said owner Jamie Cramer. The classrooms are nature-focused and are not strictly split up by age group. Kids of all ages and all teachers are around each other throughout the day.

Pitter Patter also seeks to serve low-income families, Cramer said.

The Kingsley Pitter Patter locations partner with local organizations, like the Grand Traverse Baby Pantry, Father Fred Foundation and the Michigan State University Extension, to bring fresh food and education on nutrition to their families. In Interlochen, Cramer said Pitter Patter plans to partner with Interotten and do composting — in addition to starting a garden — and other local organizations as well.

"What we hope to do is bring the same thing and the quality of care and that community outreach and involvement piece into our program (in Interlochen)," Cramer said.

Emily Culler, ICA director of leadership giving and parent philanthropy, is one of the ICA employees who will be taking advantage of this new day care opportunity. When her daughter was born in May 2020, Culler said it became nearly impossible to find child care, so she and her husband, who also works at ICA, watched after their young daughter themselves while they worked remotely.

"When we were expecting, our doctor half-jokingly said that the best time to get on a waiting list for day care was before you knew you were pregnant," Culler said in an email.

Culler said this day care opportunity at the Interlochen school is a "dream come true."

According to the Michigan League for Public Policy, 44% of Michiganders live in "child care deserts," which is defined as when the ratio of children ages 0-5 to the number of licensed child care spots is greater than three.

The number of Michigan's licensed child care providers plummeted by 735 between 2020 and 2021. There are just 8,000 providers to take care of nearly 560,000 children under the age of 5 in the state, as previously reported.

Cramer said it's "absolutely" the case that there are too few day cares for the number of kids in need of care in the Traverse City area.

As other day cares in the area have closed and as schools have stopped for the summer, Cramer said she has watched Pitter Patter's waitlist grow. It vacillates between 20 and 40 people long, she said.

"I don't feel like we ever catch up on our waitlist," Cramer said.

ICA has yet to solidify any other programming at the Interlochen Community School for the school year, but the organization is open to ideas from the community. Kessel recently held a forum for community members to voice their ideas, but he is also taking suggestions via email at ideas@interlochen.org.

The Interlochen Community School building previously operated as a Traverse City Area Public Schools elementary school, from the 1950s, when ICA leased it to TCAPS, until it closed in 2016.

ICA began the process of trying to reclaim the property and the building in 2020, which led to a civil lawsuit against TCAPS that ended in a settlement in March. The settlement agreement gave ICA full ownership of the building and property.

Kessel said there's been a lot of thought put into what could go into that building and the area around it, including a community garden, pickleball area, more child care, adult ICA classes and a safe weekend gathering space for teenagers.

"We just put up our sign just a week or so ago," Kessel said. "We're trying to make sure the grounds are maintained and people can see that there's things happening at that space so they know that it's more of a vibrant building than it's been."