Photo by Samantha Davis Jamie Gillund (right) gives a tour of her childcare facility, Little Explorers in Ghent, Tuesday afternoon to Murray County commissioners. Little Explorers is looking to expand in Minneota, and Murray County is currently seeking out more options.

GHENT — Child care facilities in the southwest Minnesota region continue to experience a shortage. Ghent’s Little Explorers center has hopes to address the issue, as Murray County commissioners visited with the day care Tuesday afternoon to discuss options.

The facility is also making strides to open its first expansion location in Minneota within the year.

“It’s not official, but we’re working on it. We’re waiting to get everything and the papers signed, but we have the lots bought in Minneota,” Little Explorers owner Jamie Gillund said. “We’re hoping to break ground this spring … Hopefully everything keeps going through.”

Gillund opened Little Explorers in January 2022, which is licensed for 62 children ages six weeks to 12 years, with separate classrooms and spaces for each group of ages. Gillund’s center has been at full capacity, and currently has a waitlist of over 90 kids.

Murray County currently has Wonder World, which serves as a child care center licensed for 76. However, the center is facing the possibility of closing in the next year due to its lease expiring in July 2026. The commissioners are beginning to look at options and wanted to personally visit with Gillund to learn more about Little Explorers, and see the layout of her center.

Minneota City Administrator Robert Vidoloff expressed interest in partnering with Little Explorers and shared the idea with Lyon County Commissioners in a county meeting in October, to which they voiced their support for.

Vidoloff said at the time that in addition to the general need for child care services, several of Minneota’s current child care providers are close to or have already reached retirement age.

“It’s (the upcoming Minneota center) basically just the same layout as this. But, like I said, we’re just adding a little bit,” Gillund said. “We did the same (layout), because we just love it. We just expanded it and added a little more storage. Storage was a big thing.”

Gillund said the Minneota location will be licensed for 100 kids, and they will also be adding in two infant rooms and two preschool rooms, where the Ghent center has one each.

“We’re going to have a younger infant and an older infant (room),” Gillund said. “We’re going to have an older and a younger (preschool room), because once they get to the preschool room, it’s like they’re in there forever. They’re there from under three to almost five … We’re going to split it up, because we have so many.”

Also new to its expansion centers, Gillund will be adding a nursing room and staff lounge.

The Ghent center currently serves a lot of families from Marshall, Minneota and Lynd, but there’s several waitlisted kids also from Canby and Porter, continuing to show the need for facilities.

There are several rules and regulations all childcare facilities must follow, which the group spent time discussing. For example, there has to be one staff member for each four infants in the infant room, one staff member for every seven toddlers, one staff person for every 10 preschoolers, and one to every 15 in the school age room.

There’s also toy requirements for each room, and square footage standards for storage, classrooms and playgrounds regarding how many children are legally allowed in an area at one time.

Gillund has a few unique traits to her center that would be implemented in its expansions, which the Murray County commissioners also showed interest in.

Little Explorers has lower windows, to allow the kids easier access looking through.

“A big thing with my center too, is I wanted the low windows. I want the kids to be able to see out,” Gillund said. “We got oversized windows and stuff like that. I wanted as much daylight as we could.”

Little Explorers also has a fully licensed commercial kitchen, and all food must be served from a commercial kitchen to ensure safety.

“Our parents love knowing they’re (kids) getting good cooked meals daily,” Gillund said. “Everything’s getting sanitized and cleaned how it’s supposed to be.”

With the costs of running a day care, providers can also look for discounted, good quality furniture and supplies.

Gillund enjoys working with Jonti-Craft in Wabasso, a children’s furniture store that sells at a discounted price. Her cost efficiency was a tactic the commissioners particularly liked.

“It’s the best child care furniture there is, that’s how we save,” Gillund said. “Once people found out we were opening, the donations just rolled in too. That saved us a lot of furniture and supplies.”

The discounted pieces are still of good quality and inspected by the licensure, but may just be marked down because of minor details like a piece of glue dragging, something was the wrong color for a school, and more.

“We looked for the best deals, because this was a building out of our own pocket kind of thing,” Gillund said. “They’re (Jonti-Craft) very good to work with. They said they’d like to help anybody local.”

As Little Explorers will continue to solidify its Minneota expansion and soon begin construction, Murray County will recommence to discuss thoughts and future options.

Detailed on Murray County’s government website, for providers looking at opening or expanding a childcare facility in Murray County, the Economic Development Authority (EDA) does offer forgivable financial assistance.

Amongst a list of options, a few points state that home childcare providers are eligible for forgivable loans up to $5,000 and child care centers are eligible up to $10,000. Funds are to be used to become a licensed provider, for expansion purposes or improvements to the space.

Applications are approved on a case-by-case basis, and loan applications are reviewed by the EDA board.