When Tawnya Hendricks heard last spring that her daughter's day care was on the Rapid City School District's chopping block, she thought she would have to quit school.

But thanks to a collaborative effort of the school district, the YMCA of Rapid City and the John T. Vucurevich Foundation, Hendricks is in class while 1-year-old Hailey is cared for at a community-operated day care.

"She loves it, and I'm able to pay more attention to my schoolwork instead of having to worry about where's my child going to go today, or do I even have a baby sitter for her," Hendricks said. "It was either this or drop out. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Being in high school, I didn't have any way to pay for day care."

The Rapid City schools started the Jump Start program several years ago for young mothers who need day care so that they can finish high school.

But the program was one of several cut last year at the end of the school year as part of the district's budget cuts. Not long after the cuts were completed, Superintendent Peter Wharton asked the YMCA if it would be interested in running the day care program as part of YMCA childcare. In turn, the Y's staff called the Vucurevich foundation about funding possibilities.

The private, nonprofit group got involved because Jump Start is "too important of a program to go away," said foundation executive director Sandy Diegel.

"Our foundation is very interested in education, and we want to make sure these parents can have an education and make a better life for their children," Diegel said Monday. "It's a win-win situation when the teen parent can finish their education while their child is in quality day care."

Wharton said the YMCA has done a great job of picking up the program.

"I stopped in during the enrollment period and was impressed with all the work that the Y staff had done," he said.

The Jump Start program began Sept. 8 and was at capacity within one week, which was 20 kids. Sixteen are under the age of two.

Without Jump Start's free day care, Hendricks said she would be at home caring for 1-year-old Hailey, not finishing her senior year at Jefferson Academy.

Sarah Randall is a senior at Stevens High school and is the mother of 7-month-old Chase. Her mother watched her son last year, and the Jump Start program has been a blessing this year, she said.

"I think it's a lot of help," she said. "It motivates you to stay in school because you know you have someone to watch him and you don't have to worry about finding someone and paying for it."

Randall said she never considered dropping out, but worries about the other people in the program who are not seniors this year if the program isn't continued in the future.

"If it does get cut, I don't think they'll be able to handle it," she said. "It will be a lot more stress on them."

Randall said she plans to continue her schooling to become a neonatal nurse after she graduates in May.

The Jump Start program includes a mentoring component and enrichment classes. Some of the enrichment classes will be in collaboration with Early Childhood Connections. Plans are underway to collaborate with other agencies for other classes. The classes will be held once per month and the parent is required to attend two classes per semester. The parent also is required to volunteer one hour per day at the child-care facility.

Diegel said it's too early to know what the future of the program might be.

"We're really in infancy stages to see how much subsidized day care can be supported," she said. "We're really on the front end of getting that figured out."

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com