LM May 2017 Final

Little Vikings, Big Results: Creating revenue through a day care program Carpet time rhymes at Little Vikings School

increase revenue, or both. At the same time, we began noticing several parents reaching out to the district or through social media asking for recommendations for local day care options. It was at that point that we decided to explore the idea of starting our own tuition-based full day care program. The Little Viking School program emerged. As we write this today, we are thrilled with the results. We are providing a much needed resource to our community, increasing community support for our schools, providing early education opportunities to students, and have created a new and substantial revenue stream. This article will outline the steps it took to allow our Little Vikings to deliver Big Results. Theplan takes shape... Developing a program required time and research. At the time, we were already offering after-school care and a Pre-K program. After visiting other schools with full day care programs, we surveyed our elementary parents to determine if there was truly a need or interest in developing

An idea isborn… As district leaders, we are always looking to improve our schools. We analyze data, juggle the latest mandates, and carefully consider staffing, all while being handcuffed by funding shortfalls. We often find ourselves reacting to situations and circumstances rather than stopping to dream about what could be. Three years ago, we stopped what we were doing to dream and to brainstorm an idea. We recognized the need to innovate our way out of the financial circumstances so many Illinois school districts were faced with. From this conversation, ideas emerged that ultimately would provide increased stability for our district while delivering solutions to community needs. Like many districts, we were in the middle of staff reductions, and programs were next. We needed to cut expenses, By Dr. David Mouser, Superintendent and Sara Burnett, Elementary School Principal Tri-Valley CUSD #3

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