News : Vinton-Shellsburg's Tiny Vikes will soon have a new home

A few of the Tiny Vikes assisted with the groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday

Tiny Vikes Early Learning Center to arrive in the fall of 2024

The groundbreaking ceremony for the construction phase of the new "Tiny Vikes Early Learning Center" was held on Thursday afternoon.

The Vinton-Shellsburg Superintendent Kyle Koeppen, school board members and staff attended the ceremony. Also in attendance were the current Tiny Vikes who were given their own plastic hats resembling hard hats to wear for the ceremony and tp take home with them.

The Center was awarded $1.5 million dollars from the Future Ready Iowa - WorkForce Development last September. The project is among 23 statewide selected in 2022 to receive grants totaling $26.6 million in state funding to expand childcare opportunities. Not only does this grant help employers create or expand child care for existing families, but also attract and retain new families.

The "Tiny Vikes Early Learning Center" will add preschool classrooms and classroom space for wrap-around child care. With letters of support from local businesses including Virginia Gay Hospital the school was able to make their case for the benefit of the community.

During the awarding of this grant, Governor Kim Reynolds said of the project, "I know how important and critical child care is to working Iowans! Today I announced over $26M in grant funding for 23 projects intended to help businesses jumpstart new child care opportunities and make it easier for Iowans to find child care options through their employer."

Vinton-Shellsburg Community School District predicted that this will add 52 new child care slots which are based on estimates from applicants and may change upon project completion. The Tiny Vikes Early Learning Center will be built at Tilford Elementary to house the 3- and 4-year-old preschool programs for the Vinton-Shellsburg Community School District.

The center will also provide child care for these students from 6:30 AM to 6:00 PM Monday through Friday. This project will expand the current before and after school program for children aged 5-10 years.

Vinton-Shellsburg was the only school awarded such a grant last year.

The Child Care Business Incentive Grant was established last year specifically to enable businesses and employer consortiums to build on-site childcare centers or partner with local childcare providers to increase new childcare slots for employees. This grant program advances one of the top recommendations of the Child Care Task Force - to incentivize business engagement in child care.

To see pictures of everyone from Superintendent Kyle Koeppen down to the Tiny Vikes breaking ground today, click HERE