By Amanda Brown
Running any business during a global pandemic is not easy. Running an early childhood development center can be especially challenging. Despite the difficulties, Casey Fall-Guerra, the director of the Childhood Development Center on campus at Eastern New Mexico University has managed to keep the CDC doors open to ENMU faculty, staff, and the general public throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CDC, located on ENMU’s campus in Portales, N.M., serves children ages 2-5. The center is nationally accredited and state licensed through New Mexico’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department. This means that during a pandemic, between national and state guidelines, plus governor’s orders and university expectations, there are many new standards that the center must meet; and Fall-Guerra says that many times throughout the last year, there have been conflicts among these varying restrictions. Fall-Guerra said that when regulations conflict, she must sort through them and find the most restrictive guidelines and make those protocol for the center.
“We have to do physical health checks at the door everyday with the families and staff,” said Fall-Guerra. “We check their temperatures, we ask them questions about travel and symptoms and if they are below a certain temperature, they pass the test and they can come into the building. While we’re doing that, our staff have to be in full PPE.”
PPE stands for Personal Protective Equipment. Under current federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, this requires an isolation gown, an N95 filtering face piece respirator, (or a mask if a respirator is not available) face shield or goggles, and gloves.
Upon entering through CDC’s doors, all staff and children above the age of 2 are required to be masked throughout the day. Although some may think it a difficult feat to require a 2-year-old to wear a mask for the entire day, Fall-Guerra said that the center has not experienced one single issue with a child not wanting to wear their mask. She shared that the key to their success is trusting the children.
“If we hold the children to expectations, and we model it by wearing our masks, I knew there would not be an issue,” she said. “I teach my college students to trust the children. Trust in their abilities. And the children have proved it over here.”
The center offers primary enrollment to ENMU faculty and staff, (although it is open to the community as well) and offers early childhood education through a state curriculum.
“But we also focus a lot on the whole child. Child nutrition, health, their social skills. Basic foundations to help them grow into good people,” said Fall-Guerra.
Beyond this, the center also serves as a way for ENMU students to earn real life experience in early childhood education. In fact, Fall-Guerra’s work as the director of the CDC is not her only service at ENMU: she is also an instructor at the university, where she teaches early childhood courses – which means that many of her own students also serve as staff at the CDC.
“My early childhood students come here to do their lab, to practice student teaching, to practice doing lessons,” said Fall-Guerra. “So it’s just great that I can coach my students, and hire student employees that want to be teachers. I can coach them and have them experience high quality education.”
Though Fall-Guerra has faced her many challenges as director with poise and positivity, she admits that it has been difficult at times. The most trying, perhaps, has been enforcing strict guidelines and policies. This has been especially difficult with the state travel ban that was recently lifted.
“I want to make sure staff feel safe, comfortable, and protected working here,” said Fall-Guerra. “But mental health is also a big issue and sometimes that means travelling, getting out of here and enjoying themselves. So that’s been hard to reinforce that, but sometimes I have to be the bad guy.”
Being the bad guy is only one of the difficulties Fall-Guerra faces on a daily basis. She is also concerned with making sure that families feel safe bringing their child to the CDC, and that the children feel safe attending as well.
“I can imagine that when a 2 or 3-year-old comes up to the door and their teacher is in full PPE, it’s got to be scary. The gown, the mask, the gloves, and the shield. Parents are also not allowed to come into the door because that’s more foot traffic and more potential spread,” she said.
The key is communicating with families and making sure that they are still participating in their child’s education. That they know what’s going on at the school, even when they can’t come in and see it for themselves, she said.
“I have to stay strong, I have to stay positive, because if I’m not? Then everything crumbles.”
One thing that Fall-Guerra credits her strength and positivity to is her past experience as an early childhood teacher for 15 years. Her experience in the classroom has provided her with much empathy and understanding for the challenges that her staff are facing, which aids in her leadership approach and also keeps her motivated.
“Reminding myself that I was there once and also how much I really enjoy children and supporting families so they can work,” she said. “I know a lot of centers are closing, or they’re not running consistent schedules with staff on quarantine, and there’s not many early childhood options in the area, so I feel like we just gotta keep going, we’ve gotta stay positive in order to serve our community and our faculty and staff, so they can work.”
But even more, it is Fall-Guerra’s love for children and teaching that keeps her inspired.
“I love the kids. I help in the classrooms a lot and it’s because I enjoy it and I like to model best teaching practices. I like to help the teacher’s problem solve. So the kids also help me stay motivated,” she said. “Plus, my staff over here are phenomenal. They’re so fun to be around. They’re positive. And seeing them grow as teachers, seeing their excitement when they apply stuff that they’re leaning in their classes to an actual classroom…that keeps me motivated.”
When asked about her view of the future, Fall-Guerra said she tries to keep her expectations realistic.
“We play it day-by-day and week-by-week here. We see how things go. We look to the future with positive thoughts and confidence, but we’re just doing the best we can right now,” she said. “It is all about being flexible. We just have to adapt.”
Adapting and overcoming have been things that the CDC has proven they are more than capable of; and with the current director at the helm, it is unlikely that there will be anything the future presents that the center cannot handle.
“It’s been a crazy year, but we’re getting through it, and we’re doing it successfully,” said Fall-Guerra.
