The Greene County Early Learning Center’s capacity recently reduced and the waiting list continues to grow.

Director Cherie Cherveny says they decreased their capacity from 108 two-week to 12 year-olds to 96 because they relocated their school-age youth from a classroom at the middle school back to their main site at 204 West Madison. The Early Learning Center was using an additional classroom at the middle school to expand their numbers, but after looking over the finances and handling concerns with the classroom’s functionality, Cherveny decided to make the change.

The waiting list is also up to 29 youth and they lost $25,000 at the end of 2015. For the first time in a while, they raised employee salaries to $8 per hour to compete with surrounding jobs in the area, which Cherveny tells Raccoon Valley Radio has certainly helped to slow down their turnover.

Because the Early Learning Center is a non-profit organization, they rely on funding from other sources like grants, fundraisers and other donations, which totaled over $28,000 of their over $300,000 operating budget.

To make a donation, call them at 386-2092.