Pilot Point will soon become the most recent school district offering child care services to its employees.

School officials are expected to debut the new service, which will be housed in rooms within Pilot Point Elementary School, on Sept. 14. The Pilot Point ISD Childcare Center will provide care for employees’ children and grandchildren from infancy to 5 years old.

“I hope it will give them [employees] peace of mind that their children are in a secure and loving environment … that’s in close proximity to them,” said Tammy Morgan, district director of instructional services, who will oversee the program.

DRC/Barron Ludlum

Tammy Morgan, director of instructional services for the Pilot Point school district, stands in the toddler room of the new employee child care center at Pilot Point Elementary School. The center is scheduled to open Sept. 14.

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Morgan said the decision to provide the service had been contemplated for years.

After noticing that several neighboring districts offered child care, Pilot Point school officials started to look at the option more closely as a way to recruit and retain its workforce, Morgan said. Before preparing for their own center, she said, district officials visited similar programs in Frisco, Little Elm and Sanger.

A presentation was made on the district’s intent in a June school board meeting, and school board trustees approved in July the option to open a center.

Participating employees who send their children to the center will have tuition deducted from their paychecks over a 12-month span. Care for children from infancy to 17 months old is $360 monthly, Morgan said; employees with children between 18 months and 5 years old will pay $370 monthly.

To open and operate its child care center, the district had to receive a license from the state and undergo other county and state inspections. All employees are required to be fingerprinted by the district, Morgan said.

Morgan said the center expects to enroll about 12 children when it opens. They will be cared for by the center’s director and at least three staffers with child care training.

For children 18 months and older, Morgan said, the center will be run like a preschool, offering a variety of age-appropriate curriculum and activities.

“My hope is not just that people bring their kids every day, but [that] it’s a place where kids become enriched and leave better,” she said.

The Aubrey, Denton, Krum, Lake Dallas and Sanger school districts also offer child care services to employees.

Staffers in neighboring districts say the service offers employees quality child care close to their jobs.

“I believe when a parent feels that their child is safe, cared for and in a positive learning environment, they are able to be more efficient and effective in their job because they do not spend time worrying about their child,” said Hugh Bolton, director of Denton’s Virginia Gallian Child Development Center, which opened in January and cares for about 40 children.

For those contemplating applying with a district, such a service can be a major factor, said Dana Waller, child care director for the Lake Dallas school district, which has offered child care for more than 10 years. About 75 children from infancy to age 5 receive care at four campuses.

School officials in Krum, Aubrey and Lake Dallas — the districts with the longest-operating child care centers — said children in the centers receive an education that enhances their skills in formative years.

The parents “love it,” said Marilyn Reeves, who directs Krum’s program.

“Some of the teachers with older children said that they wish they had that when their child was younger,” Reeves said. “Our kids are even more prepared than pre-K kids for kindergarten.”

BRITNEY TABOR can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is btabor@dentonrc.com.