Team Core Meeting Feb. 1

1. Renville County Rural Child Care Innovation Program
Core Team meeting
February 1, 2022 1:00 p.m.
Zoom meeting
Attended: Sue Thoms, Baylie Kubesh, Andi Hinther, Sandy Whited, Bridget Paulson, Diana
Hoffman, Michelle Marotzke, Mark Glesener, Fawn McNamara, Jordan Zeller,
Kelly Lutgen, Polly Ahrens, Becky Vos, Joel Harmoning, Scott Marquardt, Jackie
Edwards
Diana Hoffman, new staff at First Children’s Finance, introduced herself. She will be working on
the administrative side of the RCCIP.
M. Marotzke opened the meeting and gave a summary of the winter conference for the Economic
Development Association of Minnesota. She and colleague Nate Reuss attended the conference
last week and heard from economic development peers throughout the state. All are facing the
same challenges in housing, broadband, workforce, and childcare. There weren’t any “aha”
moments, but a lot of reflection on best practices for these issues. Marotzke also had the
opportunity to talk one-on-one with Bree Maki from Senator Tina Smith’s office and Ben
Anderson from Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach’s office about a tax credit for providers.
Bree mentioned pod models.
S. Thomes mentioned that providers in the pod model are having trouble getting on the food
program because they are “non-residential”. It would be helpful to try and reduce barriers to
getting on the food program. B. Vos mentioned that having a bathtub in the pod would be one
way to qualify as a residential provider. J. Beyer may have more information.
Update on action items:
S. Thomes has a new contact from the Minnesota Department of Education regarding
Child Development Accreditation (CDA) training and professional development. Per M.
Glesener, BLHS and BOLD are interested in having CDA programs. S. Thomes is hoping
that UCAP will soon be getting a position to help with this.
M. Glesener presented discussion about the current Facebook pages, especially the
private (closed) group. He asked S. Thomes to send another invite to all of the county
providers inviting them to the closed group. F. McNamara is the administrator and can be
reached for any questions or assistance with the sites. Some ideas for posts include
newsletters from the providers (public and private pages), child openings by room (public
page), job openings (public page), and minutes from the RCCIP meetings (public and
private pages). Some ideas to get more interaction from members on the pages include
posting things going on in their centers (mindful of blocking child identification) and
putting information about is going on in the area.

2. S. Whited asked if there was a way to put a link to the Facebook pages of providers. F.
McNamara suggested highlighting the various providers and centers with a little
interview and link to their Facebook page (if the provider wants it). She will put them
together and send them to S. Thomes to send to the providers. S. Marquardt mentioned a
local center that posts nearly every day about what the kids are doing and the different
things the center does (like fundraising). We will always want to be mindful of the
audience and who is watching it.
M. Marotzke shared the flyer that Stefanie Ryan from Renville County EDA created for the
Fairfax project. The small group is still open to the idea of a center and the existing construction
plan can be modified to accommodate that option.
USDA community facility grant – discussed this opportunity. M. Marotzke will connect with
Little Lakers Child Care Center in Lake Crystal as they are a recent recipient of this grant. There
may be an opportunity for a small tour of the facility and discussion about how they approached
it.
Child Care Appreciation Week – J. Zeller said that they try to do something every year for this.
He is open to doing it in tandem with the RCCIP team. S. Marquardt has a fund through SWIF
that is willing to provide financial support for these efforts. B. Vos suggested pairing an event
with training (required would be great). M. Marotzke will create a separate meeting for a small
group of “party planners” including B. Vos, B. Kubesh, S. Whited, B. Paulson, and S. Thomes.
B. Paulson asked J. Zeller if anyone has used the child care funds that the county set aside for
forgivable loans. The short answer is yes. S. Thomes indicated that more counties are doing this,
and it is greatly appreciated.
With no further discussion, the meeting ended at 2:00 p.m.