Central Plains USD 112 Superintendent Bill Lowry met with Barton County Commissioners on Tuesday to discuss a matching funding request for daycare in the Claflin community.

“I’ve raised some funds,” Lowry said, referring to donations to the school district’s Childcare Network established in October 2022 that provides 70% in state tax credits toward renovating an existing classroom in Wilson and a new building in Claflin. The program reached 50% of its goal by December 2022, but a year later Lowry was in hopes that he could move the fundraising along.

“I don’t have enough at this time to really start a project,” he said. “Even if you have the funds to hand and you can commit to a project, there’s still a timeline involved to find a contractor to take on the project. I’ve got a lot of people here that really need daycare,” he said.

Meeting the need

“We have some home daycares in place, but they all have a waiting list,” Lowry noted. “Some of those kids might not live in Claflin, but that’s where their parents are working. We’re trying to create some opportunities to keep younger people in the community.”

Third in line

Great Bend’s new daycare now in construction was part of Great Bend Economic Development’s Advancing Barton County Childcare initiative. The initiative, two years in the making, will next turn its attention to Hoisington for a daycare project. Claflin, meanwhile, was involved in the ABCC development process but is currently third in line.

Although the Commissioners denied Lowry’s request on Tuesday, he was advised to keep working with Sara Arnberger and Great Bend Economic Development. “They told me that it was because the request was specific and not part of the countywide initiative,” he said. Lowry estimated that it would take around $300,000 to kick-start a building project and fundraising still had another half to go.

“We’re just trying to get some funds to put something in place, sooner than later,” Lowry noted. “We do have a real need here in Claflin.”