ANNUAL REPORT 2007 - 2008

A Message from the Executive Director

Dear Friends of Childcare Learning Centers (CLC):

After a very short six months on the job as the new CLC Executive Director, I am pleased to report that our agency had a year full of achievement and is now poised to move forward with our plans to consolidate ten of our fourteen satellite sites into the Roger's Magnet School. Despite the many challenges ahead of us, the spirit, teamwork and creativity of our employees gives me great optimism that we will meet our goals for the coming year. I am very proud of our employees' many accomplishments this past year which have laid the groundwork for implementing our consolidation plans and expanding our capacity to serve more children and families and ensure the future of the agency. A few of last year's accomplishments are summarized below.

Over the past year CLC received top scores in NAEYC accreditation at the William Pitt Child Development Center and our Child Development Program at the Rogers facility. Five more sites are engaged in this new progress, proving CLC's continued commitment to excellence in early childhood care and education. Our Breakthrough to Literacy program was expanded to two additional clusters at William Pitt and at our Westover facility. Thanks to a generous gift from a brand new donor, this program will continue to expand to two more clusters at William Pitt, allowing all our full day children at Stillmeadow, Westover and William Pitt to benefit from this literacy program. I am also proud to announce that in September of 2008 we opened a brand new classroom at our Lathon Wider site, growing our School Readiness program by an additional thirty-eight children.

In collaboration with DOMUS and Kaboom, we installed new playground equipment at our Chester Addison site. Using capital budget money, we replaced classroom equipment at Lathon Wider, Westover, and Yerwood, and upgraded playground equipment at Rippowam Park and Martin Luther King sites. Our five year capital budget will allow us replace all our classroom equipment over the next four years and will help us pay for classroom and playground equipment needed for consolidation at the Roger's Magnet School.

The quality and credentials of our teaching staff have also continued to improve with many of our teachers acquiring their CDAs, Certificates in Early Childhood Education, Associates degrees and Bachelor's degress. For example, in our Head Start and Early Head Start programs, more than 50% of our Assistant Teachers and Teacher Aides have obtained a CDA or equivalent, exceeding the NAEYC requirement.

I appreciate everyone's commitment to and involvement in CLC. I am especially grateful to our Board President, Jim Blumenfeld, and all our board and Leadership Council members for their personal counsel to me in my first year on the job and for their personal time and devotion CLC's mission and for their on-going financial support. Their generous dedication to our cause is unparalleled in the non-profit world and I know I speak for all our staff in acknowledging their gifts of time and resources. Together, I know we will all be successful in building a brighter future for all the children and families who need us.

Barbara Garvin-Kester

Executive Director