After first year caring for children as young as three months, Morningstar reflects how staffing, addressing community needs contributes to success
By Jen Clancey STAFF WRITER
Ideally, expecting parents in Big Sky have a plan on how to care for their child in the first few months of life, including parental leave, what to do when that leave ends at the nation’s three month maternity leave term, and securing a child care spot for their kid when they turn six months of age.
To help with that transition, Morningstar Learning Center accepted three-month infants this year for the first time.
The new, younger age threshold is part of MLC’s effort to support community needs, a goal that has resulted in plans to better fund tuition assistance and a curriculum to support learning and development. Shannon Brennan, MLC center director, explained that for parents, filling the gap between paternity leave ending at three months and child care accepting infants at six months was difficult for working families.
“You know, we live in a town where basically exclusively, we have two working parents and that’s the only way you can survive,” Brennan said. “It’s made a huge difference already for the few families that we have been able to offer those younger spots to.”
In the 2024-25 school year, MLC cared for five infants in the three-five month age range, with a total of four infants in the room with two teachers. While the younger age threshold is a bigger ask on teachers, Brennan noted MLC operates under a staffing model built to prevent burnout and provide high quality care.
Each classroom is staffed to the state’s legal ratio, plus one teacher. For infants, MLC kept the ratio at one teacher to two students this year, while the state’s standard calls for one teacher to four infants. As soon as a kid turns two, the legal number of children in the care of one teacher rises to eight in Montana, but again, MLC adds one extra teacher in the room.
“Our goal with staffing is to make sure that we are able to provide as great of programming as we possibly can, and following the legal state ratios is just not gonna ever allow for that for a myriad of reasons,” Brennan said, describing tasks like snack prep, cleaning, diaper changes on top of instruction, activities, and development tracking that MLC aims to provide for kids.
By the end of this year, four of MLC’s teachers will have celebrated their eighth year at the center, an accomplishment that MLC Executive Director Mariel Butan said helps support a continuity of care at the facility.
“The things that the kids are learning at this age are so fundamental that people almost, I think, forget that they had to learn it at one point.”
Mariel Butan, MLC executive director
“ Having the same people there for these children is hugely important to their healthy development,” Butan said. The investment in keeping teachers on the team and supported pays off. “And so yes, it costs more for us to retain those teachers, but it’s better for the teachers and it’s better for the kids.”
She noted MLC’s use of the Creative Curriculum, which works to develop physical, emotional, literacy, math and cognitive skills in early childhood. In this framework, teachers track around 70 dimensions within that child’s development, which is useful to find areas of focus, and communication and collaboration with parents.
Activities like the second annual transportation parade, arts and crafts and tending to a new native plant pollinator garden on MLC’s property, serve as opportunities for kids to learn about the world around them—from how plants grow, to how the Big Sky Fire Department puts out fires.
Butan said that students were very excited to see a range of vehicles on Morningstar’s property. One guest speaker, Big Sky School District Bus Driver Mr. Wayne, gave students a tour of a school bus.
“The things that the kids are learning at this age are so fundamental that people almost, I think, forget that they had to learn it at one point,” Butan told EBS.
Parents reflect on early childhood care
Erika Rauk, a winter ski instructor and summer lift operator at the Yellowstone Club, lives in Big Sky with her husband, who works with Lone Mountain Land Company, and her three-year-old son Forest. When she was five to six months pregnant with Forest, Rauk signed up for the waitlist at Morningstar Learning Center.
Chatting with fellow parents and MLC teachers at a community appreciation event at Morningstar on June 24, Rauk expressed how it feels to have a place to take her kid during the work week.
“Forest absolutely loves it. He usually doesn’t wanna leave at the end of the day. He wants me to come in and play with him,” Rauk said, while Forest played with the toy firetrucks inside the facility with one of the teachers.
“Both my husband and I work in Big Sky and have been here for many years. And I think the biggest thing for us is just peace of mind—that we can trust everyone here. Everyone is amazing,” Rauk said. “Just knowing that he is safe and he’s happy has been amazing to be able to go to work and do what we need to do and make a living so we can stay here.”
Rauk and her husband applied for tuition assistance through MLC, which she said has helped them afford child care significantly.
In an April Big Sky Resort Area District meeting, Butan announced a new strategy for funding the nonprofit learning center’s tuition assistance program. As MLC raises tuition price tags to finally reflect operating costs of the facility, fundraising dollars will be funneled directly to the tuition assistance program, which supported tuition for 38 of Morningstar’s 48 students this year.
In total, MLC hopes to raise $1.3 million in fundraising this year. Events like Black Tie Trivia, and Give Big Gallatin Valley as well as grants all factor into the total. Butan said that Morningstar’s next grant request of BSRAD will reflect 16 months—a timeline reflecting BSRAD’s later grant approval date this year—of tuition assistance for families in need of affordable child care.
She encouraged community members to submit public comments regarding MLC’s support of families and to be present at the BSRAD board meeting where grant decisions will be discussed in October. She said the community can help in other ways too, like supporting programming for students and volunteering.
“ We welcome people to be a part of that, whether that’s by participating or by donating to help us make these experiences a reality for our kids and our community,” Butan said.
