WonderWorld Preschool held a community public meeting on Sunday, July 28th. They welcomed everyone to attend to get an update on what the future of Wonder World is going to be in our community. Board member Ashley Haken lead the meeting, presenting the board members to the group. Many staff, parents and grandparents of children who utilize the daycare were in attendance, along with a decent showing from the community. City of Slayton Administrator Josh Malchow and SRDC representative Jason Walker were also in attendance and spoke to the group.
Haken started by explaining that the lease for WonderWorld will not be renewed by St. Ann’s after July 2025. This led to the daycare moving into planning mode, looking for possible current locations to relocate or options for possible building locations. Many community members brought forth possible locations, but they all, in some way or another, didn’t meet the requirements of their needs. Some were too small, not enough green space, location issues, and even too many costs to make the necessary improvements needed to get the property to a usable space. The City of Slayton did offer to sell the daycare a piece of land south of the swimming pool for $1 – this will be an “in-kind” donation. The location currently has the volleyball courts and gardens but those can be relocated to across from the elementary school next to where the ice rink area is, Malchow stated.
Haken explained the needs of Murray County for the daycare to continue in operation and the WonderWorld Board are doing everything they can to make this happen. The closure of WonderWorld would be a huge burden on area families and businesses. They are a non-profit, so extra available funds are very limited to them. A fundraising committee has been created and they are working to get things going to start that process. Haken also stated they are working on finding and writing grants and working with Jason Walker at the SRDC to get other financing and GAP financing options in place.
They have gotten plans drawn up for what they would like to build. They are currently working on getting quotes for the cost of the project. The numbers $2-2.7 million have been mentioned but nothing is concrete at this point. This project has many moving parts and things are changing daily.
The question was asked if the rates at WonderWorld would be going up to which Haken said; “we are going to do everything we can for that not to happen”. There are a lot of unknowns still. A parent asked what the plan was going to be in the interim if they do move forward with building as they don’t foresee the new space to be done in less than a year. Haken assured her, “we are working on a plan. And staff and parents will be the first to know what that is. We are waiting to get contracts signed before we announce this publicly.” It was asked if the new building plans would allow for growth for the daycare to which it was explained it would. They also have designed the building to help maximize the infant and toddler numbers to increase the use as well.
The group in attendance was thanked for coming and showing their support. Haken explained that they will be getting information out to the public as soon as they can. If you would like to volunteer or get information on the project. You can sign up at this site: https://bit.ly/WW7-28Volunteer.
