Salina United Way details childcare shortages, asks city for $50,000 in 2026 budget

Christina Small, executive director of Salina Area United Way, told the Salina City Commission at an April 28 study session that childcare access remains a serious challenge in Saline County and asked the city to consider a $50,000 commitment in the 2026 budget to sustain the early childcare initiative.

Small said the United Way packet included a Childcare Aware of Kansas point-in-time estimate showing 3,917 children under 6 live in Saline County; 2,742 of those children live in households where all parents are in the workforce, leaving roughly 1,475 children under 6 who may need care. She said the early childcare initiative — which launched in 2023 and is currently open to nonprofit centers in Saline County — helped create 225 new childcare slots, including 49 infant slots, with grant support from Childcare Aware of Kansas and the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund.

The initiative’s primary wage goal, Small said, is to raise assistant teacher pay to $15 per hour and lead teacher pay to $18 per hour. She said centers in the first grant cycle increased wages on average by about $2 per hour, typically using stipends rather than raising base wage rates because the funding is grant-based and not permanent.

Small told commissioners that one local center projects a 2025 shortfall of about $166,000 operating at breakeven under current rates; she said charging families an additional $50 per child per week would only achieve breakeven for that center and still not enable sustained wage increases. She also cited a household survival budget included in the packet showing HUD fair-market rents significantly understate actual local rents: the packet lists an efficiency at $389 per month but the Salina Housing Authority reports average one-bedroom rents near $590 per month, Small said.

Michelle Groopman, the United Way’s early childcare initiative director, joined Small at the podium and described data on staffing. Groopman said that in the first ECIF grant cycle (March 2024–February 2025) participating centers reported nine staff vacancies in the first reporting month and 18 vacancies by the last month; she said several centers that had recently expanded reported most of the vacancies. Groopman added that, among the seven centers that applied in the most recent cycle, fully closing the wage gap to reach $15/$18 per hour would require more than $550,000 and that the figure would need to be sustained year-to-year.

Small and Groopman highlighted ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) data included in their packet showing 42% of Salina households fall below the ALICE threshold or live in poverty, and that the average reported cost of infant care in a family childcare home rose from $645 (2022 data) to $880 per month as of April 21, 2025. Small said the United Way has placed 10% of Early Childcare Initiative donations into an endowment now exceeding $550,000 to support long-term sustainability.

Small closed by thanking the commission for the city’s $500,000 allocation in the 2025 budget and said the United Way’s formal request for 2026 funding is $50,000; she said the request is intended to continue strengthening wages and expand access while the program seeks employer and private support.

The presentation prompted questions from commissioners about the endowment target (Small said the goal is $10,000,000) and how the 2025 allocation will be used; Small said 10% of money received in the early childcare initiative is placed in the endowment and that the United Way is meeting directly with employers about employer contributions and tax-advantaged options such as childcare stipends.

The commission did not take formal action on the request at the study session; staff noted the request will be considered during the 2026 budget process.