YMCA closing Rochester child care center at the end of August

ROCHESTER – Parents will lose up to 160 child care spaces at the end of the month when the YMCA of Rochester shuts down its Early Childhood Learning Center.

YMCA officials confirmed Friday the center will cease operations on Aug. 30. Community Director Kristina Lemmer said the YMCA’s decision came down to slow enrollment growth, increasing operation costs and staffing shortages.

The center serves 98 children, but has up to 166 child care slots. It opened in 2019 in a former charter school on Valleyhigh Drive NW.

The center is closing at a difficult time for Rochester, which has sought to increase child care access as the city heads into an expected population boom thanks to Mayo Clinic’s $5 billion downtown expansion. A 2021 Center for Rural Policy and Development study showed that greater Minnesota lost more than 20,000 child care slots over the past two decades. Officials estimate the Rochester area is short by about 1,000 spaces.

“The entire community is short on supply and when you’re in full employment like we are now, it’s really hard to recruit folks to go into the business,” said Jon Losness, executive director of Families First of Minnesota, a child care agency based in Rochester.

Losness pointed to low wages among child care workers, along with rising child care costs for parents, as drivers behind the local shortage.

This is the second major building closing for the YMCA of Rochester, which shuttered its recreation center at the start of 2022. That property was sold to developer Enclave, which tore down the former Y earlier this year as part of an apartment project to build a seven-story complex over the next year.

The YMCA has no plans to leave Rochester, according to Lemmer. YMCA officials have maintained numerous community programs since the local center closed, including a summer day camp for children at Oxbow Park, a leadership program for middle schoolers at Rochester Public Schools, and ongoing fitness programs at the University of Minnesota-Rochester.

Lemmer said the YMCA plans to expand its offerings, including a neighborhood center program for youth after school at Harvestview Place apartments this fall that will offer homework help, nature lessons and other supports.

“If there’s a health and wellness need, we’re willing to help offer and facilitate that service,” Lemmer said.