WICKLIFFE, Ohio — Nicky Foster, the director and owner of Wickliffe Academy, said the child care center has taken every precaution imaginable.
"We have the kids washing hands, there’s hand sanitizer all over the building, the staff they're wearing aprons on their clothing, they're wearing masks,” Foster said.
Foster said they also clean like crazy.
"Before breakfast, after breakfast, between breakfast and lunch, after lunch, between lunch and nap, after nap time and then at closing,” said Foster.
She said the day care has a pandemic license so they are still operating right now, but at a much smaller capacity—42 kids instead of 130 and only for children of workers deemed essential by the state.
"We’re the workforce behind the workforce so if people are going back to work, they have to have a safe place for their children to go,” Foster said.
She’s anxious to hear from Gov. Mike DeWine on when they can operate at a much larger capacity.
"If the economy’s opening back up people are going back to work. We need the ratios to go back to where they were,” Foster said. "We are really just basically making the payroll and a few of the bills.”
But folks like Foster will just have to keep waiting.
DeWine was expected to make a major announcement today about when day cares could plan to reopen across our state, but instead said they are not ready to do so.
RELATED: 'It's very important that we get this right': Gov. DeWine delays plan to reopen childcare centers
"Reopening child care centers is simply too important to do so without making certain that we have all the best information, that we have all the right protocols in place,” DeWine said at his Monday news conference.
DeWine went on to say that there needs to be a science and safety based plan before he can move forward with the reopening.
In the meantime, Foster does the best she can with what she has as she pleads for the governor’s direction.
"We’re an essential part of the economy getting kick started again,” she said.
