Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Montessori on a Mission: Kaye Boehning's Fight for Accessible Quality Education | Childcare Series

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Montessori on a Mission: Kaye Boehning's Fight for Accessible Quality Education | Childcare Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
0:10
how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
0:13
they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
0:17
the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their
0:20
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:23
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:25
My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and today's guest is Kay Boney,
0:29
founder and director of Tomorrow's Promise Montessori
0:32
Schools, an early childhood Education Center with three
0:36
locations in Huntsville, TX. Their website is tomorrow's
0:39
promise.info. They are driven by Christian
0:42
values and a commitment to quality, and in 2023 they won
0:46
the SBA Houston District Rural Business Owner of the Year.
0:51
They are the only Montessori school within 45 miles and they
0:54
recently spent over $100,000 on new learning materials, books,
0:59
arts and crafts, and playground equipment.
1:01
And they converted into a nonprofit so they can serve
1:04
families regardless of economic status.
1:07
They were highlighted in the book Havens of Hope that
1:10
discussed how child care centers made it through the challenging
1:12
COVID period. And in addition to her Master's
1:16
degree in education, Kay has over 30 years of experience and
1:20
is committed to ongoing learning.
1:22
She received credentials from the American Montessori Society
1:25
and completed the Streetwise MBA program, the first one to do so
1:29
in Walker County. She won third place out of 1500
1:34
from the Childcare Success Academy based on improvements
1:37
made to the daycare. She was recognized by the Texas
1:40
State House of Representatives and for over 20 years they've
1:44
had a four-star Texas Rising Star business rating, which is
1:47
the highest level possible. They're coming up on their 27th
1:50
year in business next month and they're the first child care
1:53
center in the Houston area to be recognized with an award.
1:57
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
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AD Back benefitsagency.com. Now back to our guest today, the
2:29
founder and director of tomorrow's Promise Montessori
2:31
Schools. Kay, I appreciate you making the
2:33
time to Share your story today. Well, thank you for having me
2:36
on. OK, so let's go back to more or
2:39
less the beginning. What's the origin?
2:41
What was the inspiration behind starting your daycare?
2:46
Well, when I was 14, I told my daddy that I was never ever,
2:50
ever having children because I had babysit my cousins and they
2:54
were little monsters. And he said, oh, you'll change
2:58
your mind someday. Well Fast forward if about ten
3:02
years later and I was having my first child and got in his
3:08
wonderful sense of humor. I have 3 biological children,
3:13
one for every ever I told my daddy.
3:16
And then I told him also I was never ever going to get a
3:19
teaching certificate or teaching degree.
3:22
And I've told him I was never ever going to do several things.
3:26
Everything I've told my daddy I was never, ever going to do has
3:29
come to pass. So I I say God for funsies
3:33
through in the school after I told him I was never, ever, ever
3:36
having children. So kind of come about it in a
3:40
roundabout way of it was definitely something because I
3:45
have a degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis in advertising.
3:50
I spent about five years in that field and then decided I was
3:55
tired of people telling me what to do about my artwork.
3:57
So I was going to go become ACPA because my brother and my uncle
4:02
are CPA's and my dad did all the book work for the trucking
4:05
company that he was vice president of.
4:08
And so I come very naturally by numbers.
4:11
I was 21 hours away from sitting for the CPA exam with a 4.0 when
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I said oh, I'm having fun teaching my 18 month old things
4:19
and stopped working on my business degree and went and got
4:25
my master's education. So from Fine Arts to took a
4:31
little detour. I thought you were to become
4:33
ACPA and then you were having fun with your kids.
4:36
And so that turned into the inspiration for starting your
4:40
daycare. Did you start it first in your
4:42
home? Well, couple things.
4:45
First thing I'm going to do is I'm as a teacher, I'm going to
4:48
educate you. Now, whether you want to or not,
4:51
you're going to hear bring it on, OK?
4:53
A daycare is where you take your dog or your grandma.
4:58
OK. Because you expect them to come
5:00
home alive? That's different from a child
5:05
care center. Yes, because at a child care
5:07
center, you expect them to learn something.
5:10
So if you want to take your child to a daycare, all you're
5:13
expecting is for them to come home alive.
5:16
You're really lowering your expectations in that case,
5:19
aren't you? Well, yeah.
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So Early Learning Center, child care, school, preschool,
5:24
something like that is giving a respect to our industry because
5:29
we hope 90% of brain development happens those first five years
5:33
of life. And so I take that very
5:35
seriously that that's what happens those first five years
5:39
of life because I can teach any grade from K through 8th grade.
5:45
And I was shown early on where it makes the most differences as
5:50
five years, first five years. So I have spent my life most of
5:54
my life in this first five years because that's where brain
5:57
development happens. So thank you for clearing that
5:59
up that that was an education for me.
6:02
Words matter, folks. And so we are not talking about
6:05
daycare today. We're talking about the child
6:08
care early childhood Education Center.
6:12
So let's get into now how this first center came about.
6:19
Actually, I finished my master's degree in in Oklahoma and we
6:26
were living there and we moved to a little town called Atoka,
6:32
OK. And I walked into the only child
6:35
care center there with a master's degree and said I will
6:37
work for minimum wage if my children can go for free.
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So I started working there and computerizer system and
6:47
implemented curriculum and everything like that with this
6:50
little center. Then we my husband got a job in
6:55
Huntsville and the child care center owner cried when I told
7:01
her we were leaving town. I moved moved to Huntsville and
7:05
worked for a year at the College in their lab school and then the
7:10
next summer I was able to take my Montessori training and I
7:13
commuted to Houston back and forth each day for about 35 days
7:18
and started. I probably have the designation
7:22
of being the only idiot to start a Montessori school two days
7:27
after graduating from that. Well, two days after doing the
7:30
training, I started the school. So.
7:35
And how many grades were you serving when you first opened?
7:39
We were going from basically six weeks old to through
7:43
kindergarten. OK.
7:45
And so how many different classrooms is that?
7:47
When I first started, I started with three children.
7:51
OK, so single room. And, and you were you doing
7:55
everything? Did you have any employees when
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you first opened? I had one person that helped me
7:59
part time. And then I started adding,
8:04
adding children, adding employees.
8:06
And, and so how were your, how were people finding you?
8:10
We're doing some advertising or just the sign out on the
8:13
streets. Well, back then there was such a
8:16
thing called the phone book and newspapers.
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And so, and I went around to different organizations and got
8:24
on there speaking to speak about what Montessori was, things like
8:29
that. As far as I know, I didn't get
8:31
any students from doing any of those things.
8:35
I did get students for running ads in the newspaper and we were
8:39
right downtown. So there was a sign on the door
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basically because it took forever to get a sign up on the,
8:47
that the outside the business and it just word of mouth,
8:52
especially it exploded after Christmas.
8:55
People went home, I think at Christmas time and talked about
8:58
how much their children were learning.
8:59
And then I mean, we, we doubled in size from the 1st of January
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to like February 1st, just absolute doubled.
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And kind of when you put out a good product, word gets around
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that's, that's the best form of marketing, right?
9:16
Yeah, word of mouth is definitely the best form of
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marketing. And so how did you let's fill in
9:22
some of the gaps. How did you get from this first
9:24
center that's now quickly growing in size to three
9:27
centers? What was that journey?
9:31
I will go along for about 20. OK.
9:34
Three years later, we finally found a location to buy because
9:37
we were renting and then we added, soon as we kind of got
9:43
started on it, the house next door we're in converted houses
9:47
in our neighborhood. The house next door came up for
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sale. We bought it, kind of expanded
9:54
again and ended up where we had three houses converted and then
10:01
we added an elementary K through 6th grade and kind of stagnated
10:08
at that point. We were held in that pattern for
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several, several years. In 2016, my elementary teacher,
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I had hired a new elementary teacher because my other one had
10:25
retired and he decided to take and call my students.
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I had been thrown from a horse. I had been I took the 7th and
10:35
8th graders I was teaching on a field trip and got thrown from a
10:40
horse and suffered post post concussive syndrome and couldn't
10:47
work all the couldn't work full time anymore and my stepson was
10:52
also dying from cancer. And so I took off and when I
10:57
came back, well, actually, I'm sorry, at his funeral, the
11:01
teacher sent out a e-mail during the funeral.
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I mean, this was planned and orchestrated and evil sent out
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an e-mail during the funeral to my parents saying he was not
11:12
going to return for the spring semester.
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And so for two years after that, I tried to find a teacher to
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teach the elementary program that met my standards.
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Could not find a teacher. And so we closed the elementary
11:25
program and then the next year I sold off my Montessori material.
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And then the next year COVID hit and I could have started my
11:36
elementary program back up if I was willing to be the teacher.
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But with running the schools and things running the school and
11:44
things like that, I had already spent two years being a 7th and
11:47
8th grade teacher. And because we were expanding
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and going to go to middle school and high school and things like
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that. And I was working till almost
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midnight every night and get there at 6:00 in the morning and
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it's like I'm tired. I can't do the being the teacher
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and running this company at the same time.
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So we closed we we basically closed down after.
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And I'm back to where I'm as back to normal as I'm going to
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get with my brain. I think it's back to.
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So you closed down the whole operation or you closed down
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closed down the elementary, elementary school.
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Yeah, because we had 50 students and my elementary teacher when
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he left, left me with nine students and we we could so he
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took he started another school and and yeah, poached these
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students. Yeah, wow.
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Which his school failed in about two months.
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So I went from 50 to he he ran off students if because we spent
12:51
we specialize and children that needed that extra help.
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And if they needed any extra help or had any learning
13:01
difficulties, he basically ran them off.
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And then that left us with about 35 students and he left with,
13:08
I'm sorry, left us with 25 students and then he left with
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about 15, leaving me about 10-9 to 10.
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And so, and which is fine, we could do with 9 or 10 children
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and grow back, but I couldn't find a teacher that held to my
13:26
standards and my, my ideals. Why is it so hard to find a, a
13:31
teacher that that's met your standards?
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The two teachers I was able to find both had public school
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degrees and licenses and stuff, but they would yell at the
13:48
children. And in Montessori, you speak to
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people the way we want to be spoken to.
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You know, they, they couldn't wrap their, their brains around
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the, the different approach that Montessori brings.
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Yeah. And they didn't have the
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classroom management skills that comes with that, you know, and
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so I, I'm not going to have my children being illed at like
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that. So, Kay, there's a lot to unpack
14:15
there. You felt from a horse, you get,
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what's it called? Post concussive disorder, yeah,
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basically when I was thrown from the horse, I had a helmet on and
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I hit the ground so hard that I left an impression in the in the
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ground and I broke the helmet and so it's.
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And So what is post concussive disorder?
14:37
What are what are the symptoms that go with that?
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Basically, you get a concussion and your brain has rattled
14:45
around inside your skull and has hit the, the, the hardness And
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so your brain is very, very bruised.
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And some of the things I had was problems I had was I couldn't
15:00
concentrate for more than like an hour or two at a time.
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And I get, you know, headaches or I'd get tired, I'd get mad.
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And I'm not a person that, you know, like throws things or
15:14
anything like that. My cell phone once.
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And, you know, I'm very frugal, so I don't throw a, at that
15:21
time, $600.00 cell phone, but I threw it across the room at the
15:24
wall and, you know, just things that weren't me.
15:28
And I was like, no, I can't be around the school and, and
15:31
stuff. So I'd work for an hour or two
15:33
and then go home. Wow, that must have been really
15:35
hard because you, I mean, you're somebody who really wants to
15:39
help people. You really care for the kids.
15:41
This was a a business that, you know, you had started and to to
15:46
have to pull yourself away from it must have been really
15:49
difficult on top of all the other things that you were
15:51
dealing. Well, it was, but David was also
15:54
diagnosed with cancer and he was dying.
15:57
And so, you know, I think both happened at the same time so
16:02
that I would have to be away from the school to adequately be
16:08
able to be there for him and take care of him.
16:11
And you know, I had great. I've got 11 employee that's been
16:16
with me for 25 years. So you know, she's been by my
16:21
side and she knows how I think. And another employee's been here
16:25
over 20 years and we've got some that's been here 13 years.
16:29
So I had good people that I trusted to to take care of and
16:37
follow with what I needed to have done while I was gone and
16:40
that helps a tremendous amount. How did you personally get
16:44
through all this term? You have the concussion.
16:47
Stepson is dying. This teacher leaves and touches
16:52
a bunch of students. What?
16:54
What got you through this difficult year?
16:55
Faith When? When he poached the students, we
17:02
lost about $20,000 a month overnight and we weren't making
17:09
$20,000 profit. And I still have not figured out
17:13
that math as to why we even stayed in business.
17:18
And with David, he was 43 when he passed and he had oral cancer
17:28
from from dipping skull. And the time he passed was
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Christmas Eve about 2:00 in the morning and he had a fiance and
17:38
she had a little baby but his but he had it.
17:41
She had a little baby and they wanted to spend Christmas Day at
17:47
his house and they were planning on spending Christmas Eve before
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he got sick at her house, her mother's house.
17:56
And I know there would have been an accident that night.
17:59
At that time he died. If he hadn't had cancer, they
18:02
would have been in the car driving home and just there's in
18:07
the Bible there says there's appointed time to die, be born
18:11
and appointed time to die. And so I had to wrap my head
18:15
around that that was his time and it would have mattered if he
18:19
had done skull not done skull. You know, God, God had a plan
18:27
and God was I didn't like it called home on on a certain time
18:30
and date. And that was going to happen
18:32
regardless of how it happened. Yeah.
18:35
And I just had a, a piece that at least the baby and, and his
18:42
fiancee was OK and they didn't, they weren't in the car, wasn't
18:45
in the car kind of thing. But I just knew that's what
18:48
would have happened if he hadn't had cancer.
18:52
So yeah. And then we make choices.
18:55
Yeah. Powerful stuff, you know, And as
19:01
you're working through all these emotions, then COVID hits, which
19:04
was hard on everybody, but particularly hard on childcare,
19:09
right. You're, you're dealing with
19:11
changing regulations, you're dealing with parents who are
19:13
taking it very seriously, parents who don't want to take
19:16
it seriously at all. You've got, you know, the new
19:20
requirements coming in different class sizes, different ratios
19:23
that are required, having to close down, open up.
19:27
And you guys were featured in a book that talked about the, the
19:31
path that you took and you know, how you were able to survive
19:34
during that time. What, what can you tell us about
19:36
that? Well, in terms of, of that, we,
19:42
my, my daddy ran a trucking company and you know, if, if, if
19:48
the trucks could go through no matter what the weather was
19:50
like, we delivered our goods and if the flowers missed the truck,
19:56
my dad would hotshot it out because those flowers were
20:00
needed for a funeral of those flowers were needed for a
20:02
wedding. If the blood missed the truck,
20:04
that blood was needed for a surgery if.
20:09
A car, car part, a tractor part for, you know, miss truck, he
20:14
would take it out to the farmer and we're talking he had almost
20:18
all of Oklahoma and most of Kansas and the Panhandle of
20:21
Texas. So I mean, this is a wide
20:23
territory that my dad would would hot shots things out the
20:27
tractor best, you know, part he would take to the farmer because
20:31
he needed to plow his field and get the harvest in.
20:34
And so I grew up with this customer service ideal.
20:39
And so when I open the school, we're in a prison town.
20:43
The prison, the prisoners have to be guarded no matter who or
20:47
what the weather is. So we have had this reputation.
20:51
We have always been open because I know how to drive on the snow
20:54
and ice. And so I would either go around,
20:57
pick up employees or I would open the school up until
21:01
somebody could get there. And some people live within
21:03
walking distance because we're, like I said, we're in a
21:06
neighborhood. We're converted houses.
21:08
And so when COVID hit, we've already got this reputation, you
21:14
know, And so the first thing I did was that morning, I called
21:18
the health department. I said, you going to shut me
21:20
down? And he says, you can do whatever
21:22
you want. And I said, OK, we'll be open.
21:26
And we made the new national news for being the hotspot in
21:31
the nation for COVID cases because of all the prisons.
21:35
And they were still transferring prison prisoners from one place
21:38
to the other. And so we became a a hotspot and
21:43
people were dying and a correctional officer died.
21:48
And I knew which unit this daddy worked at.
21:52
And he came to pick up his child and, you know, people were six
21:56
feet away. And, you know, and I just asked
21:58
him, I said, what unit do you work at?
22:01
And he kind of looked at me and he, he didn't want to answer me.
22:04
And I said, it's OK. I said, we're here.
22:06
We will continue to take care of your little girl.
22:10
And just the look on his face was so priceless because he was
22:16
afraid if he told me which unit he worked at because one of the
22:19
correctional officers had died there, that I would not let him
22:22
bring his child. And he was a single daddy.
22:25
And so the little chapter we're focused in in the book is called
22:30
the We were the calm in the eye of the storm or the eye in the
22:34
the calm in the eye of the storm because I was the calm person.
22:41
Everybody else was freaking out. And it's like it went back to
22:44
kind of David passing away with, you know, if it's my time to go,
22:49
it's my time to go. And there's nothing I can do
22:51
about it. But I'm going to do what I can
22:54
to make sure the town stays safe and the prisoners are guarded,
22:58
and people can go to work that have to go to work, and they
23:01
have some place safe for their children to go.
23:04
Sounds like you've got a powerful combinational
23:07
foundation, right? You had this amazing
23:11
entrepreneurial father who set a standard in your mind of how you
23:15
help and how you serve, and you're able to fully rely on
23:21
your faith to get you through these challenging times.
23:25
Your stepson passing away. This is God's plan.
23:30
The whole starting of the school was God's plan because when I
23:34
first found the location it was August 5th and we opened the day
23:39
after Labor Day. You do not get the city, the
23:44
state, the health department, the fire department and
23:47
licensing all together to agree on anything that quickly.
23:52
Nor do you get the Carpenter. Have a Carpenter available that
23:55
can start on August 6th to fix everything so that you can get
23:59
open that quick. And then you know, and I know
24:04
that because when we bought the first building, we spent four
24:06
months rebottling it and trying to meet all the codes.
24:10
The second building we bought August 15th.
24:14
Three years later after opening the first building, we bought it
24:17
August 15th, day after Labor Day.
24:19
It was opened, licensed, everything.
24:23
And you don't do that. It just doesn't happen.
24:29
And then during COVID, you know, I'm doing the, the Zoom calls
24:33
and the, you know, do mask work. We tried mask on the kids for
24:37
sorry children for a couple of days.
24:40
I tried to change thing from kids to children because in
24:44
Montessori we teach that children are the offspring of
24:48
humans and kids are the offspring of goats.
24:52
OK again, folks, words matter When you call a child more
24:56
education. When you call a child a kid,
24:59
you're expecting them back like baby goats.
25:00
So. And which mine do sometimes.
25:03
Yeah, Well, yeah, mine too. My 8 year old just chewed a part
25:06
of straw yesterday. So anyway, so but you know, when
25:10
you're teaching the children that their children and then you
25:14
call them a kid and they're like, well, that's a baby goat.
25:17
So 3 year olds are very literal. So you have to kind of watch
25:20
what you're doing. So occasionally I still still up
25:23
and say kid, but we, I'm, I'm, we tried masks and after two
25:33
days, I'm in my church group made masks for the children to
25:36
wear. And, you know, they're chewing
25:38
on them and they're swinging them around and all I'm like,
25:40
we're going to end up giving everybody COVID, you know,
25:45
because this is not going to work.
25:48
And how other states did it where they kept masks on
25:51
children, I have no earthly idea.
25:54
But we went from the time it hit until November, before we had
26:01
our first case of COVID at all of anybody, any child or teacher
26:07
that worked at the center. And the teacher and I was my
26:12
assistant director and who went to a chamber event and she got
26:17
COVID from the chamber event and I did not.
26:21
And then it was, it was like March before we actually had a
26:25
child that came in and she came in with it.
26:27
Her dad was a pastor. I remember those early
26:31
variations of COVID. Kids were not getting it very
26:34
much, almost at all. Yeah, it wasn't.
26:37
So the future variants. And then during the Zoom call
26:42
and everything, we had a house across the street that I had
26:48
known the lady for several years and she passed away.
26:52
And it coincidentally is pink. I mean, we're talking baby pink.
26:58
And, you know, she didn't think it was going to be paint that
27:02
pink when she painted it. And she's like, that's pink.
27:07
Anyway, she passed away and it had been leaking for years.
27:11
It had black bold, it had termites, it had roaches.
27:14
It had you know it was disgusting.
27:18
You could stand open the door stand and two doors down at the
27:22
dumpster. You could smell the house over
27:26
The Dirty diapers and the dumpster was how how strong that
27:32
smell was. And so we started remodeling
27:36
that and I wanted to use it for to rent to people because we
27:41
have a couple of rent houses and stuff and my husband wanted to
27:45
bulldoze it and make a parking lot or put a garage up because
27:50
we have several old cars. Another thing I inherited from
27:54
my daddy. And so we kept going back and
28:00
forth while it was in probate and stuff and we'd just go rent
28:04
and he'd go bulldoze and I'd say rent and he'd say parking,
28:08
parking lot, you know, And so just this gone kind of back and
28:12
forth. Little you know, you know, you
28:15
don't have you have a conversation, which don't have a
28:17
whole conversation kind of thing with your spouse.
28:19
And so one day I'm driving home from the school and it was like
28:23
somebody hit me upside the head said use it for the school.
28:26
And I'm like, uh, uh, no, I have enough parents, I have enough
28:34
teachers, I have enough children.
28:37
I have had it. I am tired.
28:40
It is COVID. I have, you know, we're at 40%
28:44
capacity. This is the stupidest thing I
28:47
have ever, ever heard of. No, all the way home, I'm having
28:52
this little argument. I walk into the house and look
28:55
at my husband. I said, use it for the school.
28:57
He's like, I like that idea. And I'm like, no, you're
29:01
supposed to tuck me out of it. And so we, we ended up, I mean,
29:06
we were already on contract to buy it.
29:09
And so I'm like, OK, that's kind of quinky dinky.
29:14
I mean, the guy comes and says he can, we're supposed to close
29:18
August or September 15th. And he says I've got, it's been
29:25
cleared now. You know, I've got people
29:28
willing to pay me cash right now to buy it.
29:29
And I don't want to wait till the 15th.
29:32
And I'm going OK, so I call it my realtor and I say, how soon
29:37
can we close on it? So she calls me back.
29:39
She says we can close on it September 2nd and I'm not OK.
29:43
And I had just enough cash on hand to buy it because I was
29:47
getting a bank loan to buy it. Just just enough.
29:51
I mean like within pennies of enough.
29:55
And I'm going that's quinky dink.
29:57
We opened the school 20 years ago or 23 years ago on September
30:03
3rd and I'm going and we've we've, we've bought our first
30:09
location in 2000, so 20 years ago for that.
30:13
And I'm going, that's kind of quick dink And I get this little
30:15
voice in the back of my head saying look it up.
30:18
And I'm going, no, we opened September 3rd.
30:22
I have been celebrating September 3rd for at least, you
30:25
know, look it up. So I've killed my phone going
30:30
back. We opened the school on
30:32
September 2nd. I had been celebrating the wrong
30:35
day for I don't know how many years.
30:38
Lots of Quinky Dinks here, as you put it.
30:40
Well, I call them Quinky. I call them God incidences
30:44
because it's kind of like, OK, it's meant to be the school, you
30:50
know, we're buying it 20, you know, on the anniversary date 23
30:56
years later. It's the stupidest thing I've
30:58
ever done. OK, I'm going to have to change
31:00
my mindset because we're at 40% capacity and I'm going to add
31:06
another building and spend money on it.
31:09
This is stupid. And so I started attending.
31:16
There was a growth start class with the SBAI did that.
31:21
I did Mattress Max School of Selling.
31:24
I found the Chris Murray podcast kind of thing.
31:28
Start listening to that and started changing my mindset.
31:32
And in January, from January 1st to the 30th, I had changed our
31:39
marketing, I had changed our website, I had changed a lot of
31:41
things and we enrolled 13 children in one month, which was
31:47
unheard of. And I'm a goal.
31:49
So I said a goal. I said I'm working to enroll 70
31:51
children by June 1st. We had enrolled 70 children by
31:56
May 1st. I think I have.
31:57
And when we opened the Pink House on March 1st, it was full
32:01
before the end of the month. So can you dial it in for us?
32:03
What was the biggest thing that you did that led to such a huge
32:08
increase in it sounds silly, but people wouldn't call us and ask
32:15
us how much you know. And we had learned over the
32:20
years, you know, if you said how much you heard click, you know,
32:24
and so we would say, OK, well, we off, we're open from this
32:28
time of day to this time. We offer breakfast, lunch and
32:31
afternoon snack. That's included in the price.
32:33
The price is click. And so we weren't gathering any
32:40
information as to who was calling us.
32:42
We weren't trying to establish any kind of rapport with them or
32:46
anything. It was just.
32:48
That. Now when people call, it's kind
32:51
of like, you know, hi, what's your name?
32:54
OK, and what age child are you calling about, you know, oh, and
32:57
what's your child's name and when's their birthday and, you
33:01
know, this kind of thing and, you know, what's your phone
33:05
number in case we get disconnected, you know, and
33:07
things like that. And so we start talking to them
33:10
and establishing a relationship because we are about
33:13
relationships. I mean, you're leaving your most
33:14
trusted, your most precious thing with me and you know, you
33:20
have to trust us. And so just starting that
33:23
conversation off of, you know, we're in because we are
33:27
interested. We want to help the parents be
33:30
able to do go to their job and not worry about their child and
33:33
we want to teach their child and things like that.
33:35
And so just starting that conversation, it sounds like the
33:40
stupidest thing on the planet, but that's what we did.
33:44
Yeah. You've turned what was going to
33:46
be just AI don't know a strictly transactional conversation,
33:51
right. I want one piece of information.
33:52
I want to know the price. Well, here, let me get to know
33:56
you a little bit. Let let you get to know me a
33:58
little bit. And then we invite them in to
34:00
come in and take a tour. And you know, and so were you
34:05
not giving them the cost until they came in for the tour then?
34:08
Yeah. So we, and if somebody's really
34:11
insistent, if they live out of town or something like that,
34:13
they're moving to town, you know, we will give them the
34:16
price. But generally it's like we want
34:19
to show you what we have to offer because it's really hard
34:21
to explain this over the phone, you know, and you know, we'll
34:25
talk, you know, we ask them what they're looking for, what
34:27
they're interested in. And then, you know, because some
34:30
people, we have the largest playgrounds in town, large show
34:35
you the playgrounds. Some people want to know how
34:37
much their children are going to spend outside because a lot of
34:40
people live in apartments or even if they live in a house,
34:43
the only time they let their child go out to play is when
34:45
they can sit out there and watch him.
34:48
And, you know, parents are busy. When do they have time to do
34:51
that? So some children never get the
34:52
opportunity to play outside. You know, there's some children
34:55
in cities that have never, ever touched grass, ever.
35:00
And so, you know, we have grass on our playground, not so much
35:05
in our town is probably touching, actually touching
35:07
grass. But there are some places in
35:10
inner cities and stuff people have never touched grass, even
35:13
adults. And so some people are
35:17
interested in what is their child going to be doing after
35:19
school or what's their child going to be doing during the
35:21
summer when they go after school.
35:24
And so some people are interested in our safety
35:26
features because we have coded entry.
35:30
You can't get in unless you have our codes.
35:34
And I've had that forever, ever since I first opened, You know,
35:40
then some people are interested in the curriculum.
35:44
Some people are interested in the menu.
35:47
You know, I've had some people say, well, they don't want any
35:50
GMO products or they don't want this or they don't want that,
35:52
you know. And so it's like, OK, well, this
35:54
is what we serve for lunch. So, you know, on these days, if
35:58
you want to bring something different, you can, you know,
36:02
and so you find out what they're looking for because we have so
36:06
many different things we're offering.
36:08
We're open in the early, We're open at 5:00 in the morning.
36:12
So we catch that first shift. We catch that first shift that
36:16
goes to the prison because they get off at 2:00.
36:21
I mean, this sounds like your dad, right?
36:24
Driving across the state to deliver a tractor part because
36:27
because that's what the customer needs.
36:29
We're open till 7:30 at one location because that's when the
36:32
hospital gets off. Wow.
36:34
They don't open as early because that we catch that shift from
36:37
6:30 to 7:30 over at the third location because we're we've got
36:43
a partnership we're working with the hospital on.
36:46
Yeah. And so something interesting I
36:49
want to make sure that we cover because I thought that this was
36:53
really unusual is that you went from a for profit company to a
36:57
nonprofit so that you could you could serve people at multiple
37:03
income levels. So talk to me about how that
37:05
came up. In 2000, I applied for and got
37:11
our nonprofit status. So we've been a nonprofit for,
37:14
you know, going on 24, about 24 years.
37:18
And I did that because I thought, you know, we could
37:21
apply for grants and we could, you know, I want to set up a
37:24
foundation where, you know, anybody could come that wanted
37:30
to come, especially when I had the elementary for the
37:32
elementary, because there's so many people that aren't being
37:36
successful with traditional teaching and they don't have
37:39
choices. You know, they might have
37:43
different private schools here in town.
37:44
And they do and they're very excellent.
37:48
And our school system is, is good, is a good school too.
37:51
But sometimes you need that extra, you need a different
37:56
approach. And so in Montessori, you master
38:01
a concept before you go on to the next concept, where in most
38:04
traditional schools, private or public, everybody's on the same
38:09
page at the same time. And so if you don't understand
38:13
static addition, you know 3 + 5, you know 4 + 5 things under the
38:20
under the value of 10, you don't understand dynamic addition
38:25
where you're now carrying and doing 3 + 9.
38:29
So you shouldn't go from static edition to dynamic edition until
38:34
you've mastered static. And so that's how a lot of
38:38
children, they need that extra week or they might need the
38:41
extra 3 weeks or an extra two months, you know, but that's the
38:47
thing that's inherit in Montessori is everybody's on
38:50
their own curriculum at their own pace.
38:53
And so I might have a second grader that's still doing 1st
38:58
grade math, but doing 4th grade reading, you know, so you don't
39:03
hold them back and you let you know, you work on where they,
39:06
they need the extra work. And so that was, that was my
39:10
frustration is watching some of these children fail or watching
39:15
that spark go out of them because I get the children in
39:18
the summer and it's like, oh, we have to go to a museum, we have
39:23
to read. When can I have electronic time?
39:27
You know, And it's like, it's sad because when they were at my
39:32
school, it's like, oh, we get to read or, oh, we get to this or,
39:36
oh, we get to that. You know, especially when I had
39:39
my elementary students, I was comparing them against my
39:42
elementary students. We could go on a field trip.
39:44
We get to go. I mean, you know, we get to go
39:46
to the museums. And that's what I have to.
39:48
I get to. Yeah.
39:51
And so you know, that difference in that terminology, in that
39:55
language, it's like something happens and that's, that's, you
40:00
know, one of the reasons why I missed the elementary is because
40:04
some of that I see some of that spark go out of the children.
40:07
I'm in the statistics for how many people and probably nobody
40:11
on this, this, this looking to listen to this is in the
40:14
statistic, but how many how many people graduate high school and
40:17
never read another book? The statistic is outstanding.
40:23
It's it's sad. How does it work, Kay, when a
40:26
family comes to you? Needs to pay the tuition or to
40:28
at least pay the full tuition. How is how does that money come
40:32
in? How is that assessment made?
40:34
Well, I haven't been totally successful.
40:38
I've not been able to write grants to fully fulfill that
40:40
dream of you know of that Now we do take sub state subsidies so
40:48
whatever the state will pay us. So if a parent goes to the state
40:53
and says I need childcare subsidy, some parents pay
40:56
nothing and the state picks up the rest of the bill and they
40:59
pay us our contracted amount. The sad part of that is, is
41:04
sometimes there's a waiting list.
41:06
Sometimes for our area it's up to a year, which doesn't help
41:11
anybody get jobs or help the workforce or help the employers
41:15
out there that are trying to find people to hire because the
41:19
mommies can't find childcare because they can't afford it.
41:23
Then we also have a little bit of a scholarship where they can
41:29
pay a fee. It's about $30.00 and they can
41:32
submit all their information to the third party and see if they
41:36
qualify for a scholarship. And we have usually given about
41:41
10% off of off of their tuition if they qualify for the
41:46
scholarship because again, we don't have the funds to give
41:50
somebody a free ride because we just don't haven't gotten
41:54
scholarships or I'm sorry, I haven't gotten grants and things
41:58
like that. And over here, if I had many
42:03
different hats, I could probably possibly write some of those
42:07
grants and things like that. But I have been devoting more of
42:13
my other time what what time I have we do the Dolly Parton
42:17
Imagination Library. And so the school does, you
42:22
know, this portion of the pie and it's gotten bigger as to the
42:26
portion of the pie with of the population we serve for the
42:29
town. But the Dolly Parton Imagination
42:32
Library serves the whole county by giving children books for
42:35
free from zero until they turn 5.
42:40
And so we have a partnership with the hospital that when a
42:43
baby's born, we give them a gift bag.
42:45
And in it has an enrollment form for the for the program and a
42:49
little letter saying how important it is to read to your
42:51
child. Because the stats show there's
42:54
one book for every 300 children. When you're in a poor
42:57
neighborhood and middle class families only have about 13
43:01
books, and this program will give you 60 books by the time
43:05
you go to kindergarten. But our community's 60% / 62%
43:09
poor. So we have a huge population of
43:13
children going to school that's never seen a book going against
43:16
children that are already already reading.
43:19
And then we expect the public school system or the school
43:22
system to fix that. And when 90% of the brain
43:26
development happens by the time you're 5, you're, you're asking
43:29
them possible. So the program that I've been
43:33
spending a lot of time trying to do is affecting that whole pie
43:37
where we're getting books out and we're sending out over 1000
43:40
books a month. So we're trying to affect that
43:44
part of our little world. Most of our and in our
43:52
community, the, the Mamas that have the means usually go to
43:56
different place to have their, their babies.
43:58
They'll go to Conroe or The Woodlands or something like
44:01
that. So having the partnership with
44:04
the hospital has, is that where the funding comes from?
44:10
No, we don't, we don't have. OK, so over on my other hat of
44:16
14,000 I wear is we have events that we fundraising events.
44:22
So we in the spring we do a 5K run with your imagination color
44:28
run. And then in the fall, we've been
44:31
the last two years, this will be the third year we've done Lasso
44:35
Your Imagination, which is a BBQ dinner and silent live auction,
44:40
desert auction. And we raised money.
44:43
And then my daddy passed away in March.
44:45
And if it had wheels and a motor, he was all into it.
44:49
So Kay and her little brain added a car show this year to
44:54
honor my. Dad and.
44:56
He was all about children, so we added inflatables.
45:00
So there's going to be 10 inflatables out there for the
45:02
jump into your imagination and then Rev up your imagination.
45:06
So we're having a car, Jeep, motorcycle, truck show.
45:12
They're going to have vendors out there, food trucks and
45:16
inflatables. And during the day we already
45:21
have the fairground rented for for the night time event this
45:24
year we're going to have comedians and things.
45:27
And so that's our big fundraiser to pay for the program for the
45:33
year. Oh, that's awesome.
45:35
You are wearing a lot of different hats and helping a lot
45:38
of people in a lot of different ways.
45:39
This is fantastic. I love this that marketing that
45:43
that I had a long, long time ago and my first job is working for
45:48
a bank and I did some events for them.
45:51
I was an event coordinator for them and the advertising and
45:54
things that I did for the bank for five years kind of come back
45:59
circle around that. I'm doing that now the
46:03
psychology classes I took in school because I have a psychiat
46:06
psychology minor probably also, although my school didn't give
46:10
minors. But I have about 24 hours in
46:14
psychology because I thought I was going to be a psychologist
46:16
for a while and then I just thought I would get depressed
46:18
listening people be depressed and talk around me all the time.
46:21
So I was like I gotta have something more positive than
46:24
that. Whole reason why I quit being
46:27
thinking about being a psychologist was because I
46:29
didn't think I could hit a listening to depressed people
46:31
all the time. Fair enough, I think that's a
46:33
legitimate concern. And then all the business
46:37
classes I ended up taking. So it's funny how all the crazy
46:42
classes, even the psychological effects or I'm sorry,
46:46
sociological effects of children watching TVI did.
46:50
A term paper when I. Was a senior in high school over
46:54
TV and children and then I ended up.
46:56
Taking a. Sociology class about TV and
46:59
children, and then I've done a lot of research about children
47:04
and the digital phones. If you want to give your kid
47:08
crack cocaine, put a phone in front of them.
47:12
Because it stimulates the same. Area of your brain.
47:16
And that's why you see these kids.
47:17
Throwing absolute meltdown fits when they get their phones taken
47:21
away. And sadly.
47:24
I mean, I've seen a video where the child is laying on the floor
47:27
in a fetal position doing this without a phone in his hand.
47:31
Wow. Because they were so addicted to
47:35
the phone that. Just that scrolling motion.
47:38
Has become a soothing mechanism for them.
47:42
You know, Kate, one of the things I hear talking with a lot
47:45
of childcare owners is the challenge in finding good people
47:49
and holding on to them. And I hear you talk about, you
47:52
know, all the ways that you are helping other folks.
47:56
I'm curious, what have you found has worked in a recruiting and
48:01
and retention for building and maintaining a good team of
48:06
people? Well.
48:09
We've kind of evolved in that because when I first started,
48:13
you know, I like everybody and so I would give everybody a
48:16
chance pretty much in child care, there's kind of the mantra
48:22
if you're breathing, you're hired.
48:26
And I discovered that I'm probably not the best judge or
48:33
person to be doing that job. So a few years ago I turned and
48:38
now apparently I've done some, some things right because I have
48:41
people that have been here for, you know, 2520, thirteen years.
48:45
So I've, I've done a lot of interviewing and I, I have
48:48
gotten some golden gems, you know, but I've also got some
48:52
real turkeys over the years too. Umm, and I, I have somebody now
48:58
that does the hiring and she's not tempted by breathing.
49:04
She, I have given her my vision of what I'm looking for and she
49:09
does what we're looking for and she does just doesn't hire
49:12
anybody. So we're very have been very
49:17
selective in the last probably three years and who we hire.
49:22
And that has made a huge difference.
49:25
Do we still have turnover? Yeah.
49:26
People get fired, tired of the I called, I think it's the five or
49:30
six. PS They get tired of the poop,
49:32
the pee, the parents, maybe sometimes the parents the pay
49:40
and then there's not enough praise.
49:44
So you know. After about six months, there's
49:47
a six month cycle, you know, that they realized that they get
49:51
pooped on and peed on a lot or puke puked on, you know, and
49:56
that the parents can sometimes be an issue.
49:59
And then you have some, the pay, the pay's not great.
50:03
They're not going to get rich at it.
50:05
And they have to have a passion for what they're doing and they
50:10
need to, they need to know how they're doing a good job.
50:14
And unfortunately in today's society, sometimes I call it the
50:18
Pez Pez candy dispensary. You know, it's like they want
50:21
praise for showing up 5 minutes late, but I'm here, you know,
50:26
and it's like, no, that's you need to be in your classroom on
50:30
time because we have ratios we have to meet and we have safety
50:33
standards we have to meet and stuff like that.
50:36
So if I have people that are the kind of the Pez Candy people,
50:40
they don't last long what you call them.
50:43
Pez candy people. You what?
50:45
Why do they? Why do you call them Pez Candy
50:47
people? Because they want a reward for
50:50
every little thing. I showed up.
50:52
I was 10 minutes late, but I showed up.
50:54
I should get a reward for showing up 10 minutes late.
50:59
Yeah. And And you've met them.
51:02
Everybody has met somebody like that.
51:05
You know, we've all come. Across those people, Kay, I
51:09
have. Just one more question for you,
51:11
but before I ask it, I want to do 2 things.
51:13
If you're listening today and you like today's content, please
51:15
hit the subscribe, like or share button on your favorite podcast
51:18
app. I also want to tell people the
51:20
best way to get in touch with you.
51:22
What is that best way to get? In touch with me.
51:26
Would probably be Kaye at TPMS dot live I.
51:33
Asked my daddy a few years. Ago, I said.
51:35
Why'd you put an E on the end of my name?
51:38
And he said, well, I wanted, I wanted you to be unique.
51:40
And I said, you really didn't think that through, did you?
51:43
So. So now you have to.
51:46
Clarify the spelling of your name for everybody, Kay.
51:50
Well, yeah, a lot of people want to call me Kathy or Karen or
51:53
something like that. And I'm like, Nope, it's just
51:55
Kay. My parents are poor.
51:57
They couldn't afford a real name so.
52:00
Well, my wife is Kayla. And we call her Kay for short
52:03
all the time. So I, I think it's a perfectly
52:05
lovely name. Yeah.
52:07
So my last question for you, Kay, with an E, how do you see
52:10
your industry evolving in the next 5 years?
52:13
What do you think the big changes are that are coming?
52:16
That's a. Difficult.
52:17
One, because the industry as a whole is in a crisis.
52:21
Big. Huge.
52:22
Crisis. Between what you can pay people,
52:26
what you charge parents and what your overhead is and my
52:32
insurances went from 20,000 to 30,000 to 60,000 to 76,000 this
52:39
year. So this.
52:41
Is a business. Insurance or yeah.
52:45
Yeah, it went up. $16,000 this last year.
52:50
Then you've got people needing to make more because of
52:55
inflation and things like that. Then you've got the cost of food
52:58
going up. And then and there, my current
53:03
crisis that I'm working on right now is I've now reached the big
53:06
girl status and I have to put my big girl panties on.
53:09
And we've reached right at where we're getting 50 employees.
53:14
So that changes a whole bunch of rules that I have not familiar
53:18
with. And do you grow or do you stay
53:23
small? And if you grow, can you afford
53:26
the health insurance and can you afford their different
53:28
requirements and things like that that you're at and there's
53:32
a need, But how do you navigate that when you know you're not
53:37
making that much money to pay $100 per employee for health
53:42
insurance and they would rather have the $800 because they need
53:46
it so. That's that's the current.
53:49
Big crisis in the whole industry.
53:53
Is trying to. Navigate those waters.
53:55
It is nothing. Nothing compared to what COVID
53:58
was in my opinion. Do you see any solutions on the
54:02
horizon? There's a couple of different
54:10
things going on and this is where things always come with
54:15
strings attached. Like we have started a our
54:20
public school system offered free preschool for three and
54:26
four year olds back in 2012 and it decimated us and about drove
54:32
us out of business. We've been able to navigate that
54:36
and we just started last year where we were full, but we
54:40
started a public pre-K partnership with the charter
54:43
school in order to help those parents that did qualify and
54:47
wanted to keep their children at our center.
54:49
And so we ended up with about 26 parents last year that qualified
54:55
for free pre-K to stay at our. School and not go.
54:58
To the big, big kids school, you know, where they're just lost in
55:04
lost in the crowd, you know, because there's those big, huge
55:07
4-5 hundred, 600 people, you know, children all in the same
55:12
building. And I have the separate
55:15
buildings. So each building has its own age
55:19
group and number of children in it.
55:22
That doesn't come close to, you know, that that many.
55:26
And so that's one thing, but that comes with strings as to
55:31
what you can and can't do. They keep talking about
55:35
universal pre-K, which usually turns around and means they're
55:39
going to take our three and four year olds from the private
55:41
centers and put them in public school, which is going to kill
55:48
childcare for zero to three-year olds because we can't.
55:52
You can't make a profit on babies.
55:54
They're lost leader, you know, because the ratios have to do.
55:58
Yeah, the ratios are so much smaller.
56:00
And so if you are trying to pay for your baby teachers, it takes
56:06
the three and four year olds to try to pay for a baby teacher to
56:10
keep the parents cost where the parents can afford it.
56:13
And anything that is going to come down the Pikes is to, Oh
56:19
well, the government's going to fund this or the government's
56:23
going to fund that. Then again comes with those
56:26
strings and, and we participate, participate freely in the Texas
56:31
Rising Star system because we want to make those adjustments.
56:35
We want to, you know, minimum standards here.
56:37
Then there's a 2*3* and a four-star level.
56:40
Well, we want to be up here, but not everybody does and.
56:45
So it's. Expensive to go up each star
56:49
level because of the training required for the teachers or for
56:52
the materials. It's called, you know, has to go
56:54
in the classrooms and things like that.
56:56
So the more things that are supposed to help parents don't
57:01
always help childcare centers and the things if you're given
57:05
money, then there's always, there's always a string attached
57:10
to it. And so can you jump through that
57:12
hoop? Can you follow those regulations
57:16
and still stay in business and. So it.
57:20
Kind of depends on what's going on.
57:22
I mean, if the state of Texas would allocate more money for
57:28
child care centers in the sense of the parents getting
57:33
subsidies, then, you know, more parents could be helped.
57:38
But on the flip side to that is I'm in Huntsville and I get paid
57:43
the Houston rate. Well, in Houston, the rate is
57:49
twice as much for child care as it is in Huntsville.
57:54
So to get the state. Money in Houston means they're
57:57
getting paid half as much because.
58:00
What we, what we charge. In Huntsville is about what the
58:02
state pays and so you can operate a child care center in
58:07
Houston and take subsidies, all children being subsidies and
58:12
stay in business because your costs are twice as much so if
58:18
the. State wants to give.
58:19
Enough money for more children to have subsidies.
58:24
And they they want to give. You know, say 100,000 people are
58:28
getting it now and they want to make it 200,000.
58:30
It's not going to help the problem in Houston because
58:33
they're not this. The dollar amount is not enough
58:36
for that center in Houston that might.
58:39
Help us in Huntsville. But people in Houston aren't
58:43
going to be able to fund child care.
58:44
There's still going to be a shortage of child care centers
58:46
in Houston. If you give more money, you
58:50
know, say you're given $700.00 a month now and you give $1000 a
58:53
month, then instead of 100,000 people, you're going to help
58:57
70,000 people. Some tough problems to solve
59:02
there. It all it all goes back to all
59:05
those, those numbers and you know, and that's like the public
59:10
pre-K partnership that we have. You get paid so much a day per
59:14
child. Well, my numbers work out where
59:18
it's about the same as what I charge for child care in
59:21
Houston. It's not.
59:24
So I don't know how the people in Houston can do a private
59:27
pre-K partnership on the amount of money they're they're paying.
59:31
Or any of the other. Districts 'cause like I said,
59:34
Huntsville's a poor community. So 10 miles, 14 miles down the
59:38
road, you have a town that pay charges $200 more a month for
59:41
child care than what we charge in Huntsville, 14 miles.
59:46
You know Kay, I've heard. I've heard similar feedback from
59:49
a lot of different childcare owners and you know, I, I hope
59:54
that these episodes are getting out to some folks who have some
59:57
power to help the make the situation better and make make
1:00:00
some more funds available because.
1:00:02
It's a problem that's existed for a while.
1:00:05
It's gotten much worse through COVID and the way that it's
1:00:08
headed, it's going to continue that direction.
1:00:10
If it's COVID, COVID has made at least put us on the radar that
1:00:17
were necessary in order to for the economy, because if you
1:00:21
don't have enough childcare centers, your economy can
1:00:23
expand, you know, and. There's a lot of child what?
1:00:30
They call childcare deserts out there and you can Google
1:00:35
childcare deserts and it'll show you where there's areas that
1:00:38
there's not enough childcare centers in and you could go in
1:00:42
there and open one. But whether you can make a
1:00:44
profit at it enough to stay in business, even if you're a
1:00:47
nonprofit, you have to pay the bills, you know, but.
1:00:51
There's a reason. Why there's deserts in some
1:00:53
areas is because it's hard to make that make it work.
1:00:57
Well, Kay, I want to be the first one to thank you for
1:01:00
sharing both your time and your story with us today.
1:01:02
I really appreciate it. Well, thank you.
1:01:04
Thank you for having me, folks. That's a wrap.
1:01:07
On another episode. Of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:01:10
Thanks for learning with me today.