Parkside Preschool Center, 207 E. First St. in Merrill, is pleased to announce their recent achievement of a 5-star rating on a 5-star scale in YoungStar, Wisconsin’s Quality Rating System for Early Childhood Programs.
Administered by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, the program assists state licensed early childhood care and education programs in both group and family care settings, in providing children with safe, nurturing, developmentally stimulating places to grow. This recent upgrade marks an improvement from Parkside’s previous 4-star rating, achieved in the Spring of 2015.
As center director Paula Koelsch explains, “Our steady and diligent efforts in advancement within the YoungStar system, are reflective of our heartfelt commitment to helping our Merrill area families afford quality early childhood care and education – our sole purpose for enthusiastically embracing participation in Youngstar,” she stated. “The Youngstar design includes fiscal incentives to programs that meet higher quality standards and have current Wisconsin Shares authorizations. An additional way that Parkside Preschool Center, a United Way affiliate, helps families afford quality early childhood care and education, is by allocating the entirety of our United Way grant monies toward scholarships for low-income families with tuition co-payments.”
In achieving the milestone, Parkside underwent a Youngstar facility assessment which focuses on four areas: Provider education and training, learning environment and curriculum, business and professional practices and health and wellness.
Koelsch is also quick to credit her staff for their devotion to the center’s goals of providing quality child care; proving a key factor in the Youngstar advancement.
“The increase in our rating demonstrates our staffs’ constant desire to provide the highest quality care to our community. We are the only state licensed group child care facility in town with a rating of five stars,” she adds. “Parkside staff continue to devote much of their personal time and energy to increasing the quality of our non-profit program which is offered to our community as a service. I am so proud of our staff and facility!”
For more information on Parkside, programs offered or their recent 5-star achievement, contact the center at 715-536-7716 during regular business hours of 5:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.