PLEASE READ INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY

Overview

This Assessment asks you to adjust tuition, salaries, staff ratios, and programming as well as to make decisions on hiring needs and how to best spend your anticipated revenue. Imagine you are the director of Sunny Skies Day Care Center. Your business has become very successful over the years, so you have decided to move to a larger facility. You need a larger staff to accommodate the growing enrollment at your center. You must reassess the current budget to account for the changes that come with expanding your early childhood care center.

Each part of the Assessment guides you through the steps that you would need to effectively allocate resources and manage the facilities for your early childhood care center in its new location.

Professional Skills: Critical Thinking, Technology, and Written Communication are assessed in this Competency.

Your response to this Assessment should:

• Use the documents provided as required.
• Reflect the criteria provided in the Rubric.
• Adhere to the required assignment length.
• Use the APA course paper template available here. All submissions must follow the conventions of scholarly writing. Properly formatted APA citations and references must be provided where appropriate. Use headings to indicate which Part of the Assessment you are addressing.
• Download the Writing Checklist to review prior to submitting your Assessment.

This Assessment requires submission of three (3) files.

1. One Word document will include your written responses to Parts I–III. Save this file as MP003_Narrative_firstinitial_lastname (for example, MP003_Narrative_J_Smith).
2. The second file is a completed “Budget” document. You will submit the budget as supporting evidence for your narrative. Save this file as MP003_Budget_firstiniital_lastname (for example, MP003_Budget_J_Smith).
3. The third file is a completed “Labor Schedule” document. Save this file as MP003_Labor_firstinitial_lastname (for example, MP003_Labor_J_Smith).

When you are ready to upload your completed Assessment, use the Assessment tab on the top navigation menu.

Instructions

Before submitting your Assessment, carefully review the rubric. This is the same rubric the assessor will use to evaluate your submission and it provides detailed criteria describing how to achieve or master the Competency. Many students find that understanding the requirements of the Assessment and the rubric criteria help them direct their focus and use their time most productively.

Rubric

Access the following to complete this Assessment:

This assessment has three-parts.  Click each of the items below to complete this assessment.

Part I: Tuition Fees and Facilities

Go to the “Budget” document. Find the tab “Budget for Next Year.” Locate the balance for next year (line 42).

Set tuition fees for each program for the upcoming year by typing each fee into the appropriate green cell. Be sure the balance for next year exceeds the balance for this year to account for the changes that come with expanding your early childhood care center. (The balance for this year can be found on line 40 on the tab called “Budget for This Year.”)

Submit 1–2 pages explaining the following:

• The impact of tuition changes on the program and on the families it serves
• How you will spend this money to manage the facilities and contribute to a safe and positive learning environment for the children enrolled at your early childhood care center

Part II: Human Resource Allocation

Notice the change in staff and salary in this year’s budget and next year’s budget. Using both budgets, write 2–3 paragraphs explaining the staff and salary changes that were made and infer the reasons why.

You anticipate 125 children will be enrolled in the new facility.

Using the “Labor Scheduling” document, develop a daily schedule of labor for the entire early childhood care center that adheres to the recommended adult-child ratios provided in the “Adult-Child Ratios” document. Note that the Monday schedules for three floaters are given. Use the following information to create the schedule:

• The center is open Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• Staff in full-time positions work 40 hours per week.
• Staff in part-time positions work as needed for the early childhood care center but no more than 30 hours per week.
• Floaters are not assigned to specific rooms. (They may provide support in the toddler rooms, the pre-school rooms, and the pre-K rooms as necessary.)

Review the number of staff in the “Budget for Next Year” and the labor schedule you developed in Step 2.

Write 2–3 paragraphs explaining any changes you would make to the staffing projections to adhere to the adult-child ratios found in the “Adult-Child Ratios” document.

According to your budget, you decided to save money on custodial services by hiring a contractor instead of a full-time custodian.

Write a 1-page paper describing the role and responsibilities of the custodian and explaining the advantages and disadvantages of using a contractor instead of using someone on the payroll.

Part III: Nutrition Program

Use the “USDA Choose My Plate” website to describe how you will manage the nutrition program at Sunny Skies Day Care. Your 3- to 4-page description should include the following:

1. An explanation of your personnel needs and the responsibilities of your food service personnel
2. A sample 1-week menu plan that includes an explanation of how it adheres to nutritional guidelines
3. An explanation of how you will meet health regulations and accommodate special diets

https://www.choosemyplate.gov/