Multnomah County Preschool & Early Learning Division (PEL): Jorge, could you start by telling us a little bit about your program?
Jorge Ramirez (JR): Sure! We are a Spanish immersion program, assisting kids from six weeks old up to five years old. We have partnerships with Baby Promise, Preschool Promise, and Preschool for All.
PEL: How long have you been in operation?
JR: We started in 2018, almost six years ago. We started in our house, as a home facility. My wife and I are both educators with degrees from Peru. I also have a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degree from Portland State University. My wife was working in Portland Public Schools as an educational assistant and trained for three consecutive years in the Tools of the Mind curriculum. She became a leader and trainer for the curriculum, which was exhausting for her. She started thinking she wanted to open her own child care.
Around the same time, I was supporting other child care providers in developing their portfolios for Spark, Oregon’s quality rating system. I worked with eight providers, and out of those eight, all of them got their star rating. In order to help them, I had to visit their sites. Going to eight different places gave me and my wife a better understanding of what a child care should look like. That, plus my knowledge, plus the experience we have in education, plus the curriculum my wife was well-trained in – through the combination of all of those, my wife helped us build a child care.
JR: We started in our house. At that time, I was a little scared to lose the regular salary that my wife received from her job. I worried whether we would get clients. But I told my wife, “You know, let's do it! But we are going to be smart.”
So in December we had that conversation, and we started purchasing things we’d need in January, February, and March. During spring break, we put our hands to painting, decorating the walls, and making the centers where the kids were going to be playing and working. We launched this project the third week of June.
For the first month we were open, we were sending flyers all over. And finally, by the end of July, we got our first two clients, two little kids! And soon we realized, it was hard for us to say no, and kids were coming, coming, coming until they kicked us from our house – we didn’t have enough space for all of our clients, so we needed to buy another house!
And then came the pandemic. During the pandemic, many child care centers shut down. But we wanted to continue, and at that point, we received the children of doctors, nurses, members of the military, and other essential workers. And these people liked the job we did, and they started talking about us all over!
We signed contracts with publicly funded programs like Baby Promise, Preschool Promise, and Preschool for All. And we were receiving more kids, and more kids. So we bought a commercial property to build our center, expecting to have that place open in a year or so.
Remember I told you we had to buy a new house? We brought the kids to our new house, thinking that maybe in two or three months the center would be ready, and we would move there. But it wasn't that easy. And again, we didn't have a house because our two houses were crowded with kids, and with employees working!
PEL: What were the challenges in getting that center up and running?
JR: My background in construction is from Peru. In Peru, you don’t request authorization from the city to start building. I hired a contractor to do everything, thinking that he knew what he was doing. And actually, he didn't ask permission from the city. And by the time I knew about the problem, the center was already built! It was finished, ready to start receiving kids. But the city said they couldn’t grant us anything without the initial construction permits.
I asked them, “How can you give me construction permits when it's already constructed?” They told me that whoever did the work wasn't honest with me, and we would have to tear everything down. All the drywall needed to come off. All the lights needed to be disconnected. The electric panel needed to be changed, everything! As we were destroying everything, I realized I would even have to frame the whole building again.
So it cost us a lot of money, but we did it! We made it, and we finished it.
Fortunately, you know, when you do everything according to your principles and you do the work correctly, somebody else will reward your hard work. And we received grants to reimburse some of this project through the Preschool for All Facilities Fund.
PEL: Amazing!
JR: We weren't expecting that money, but we got it last month. And then my next door neighbor, who owns three lots together, said that he wants to sell it. And I said, “Well, I’ve got the money!” So I'm going to give him a down payment this month and start another project. The sun shines again! I will be able to serve around 150 families when that place is built.
PEL: That's incredible. I love this story so much. Why have you decided to partner with publicly funded programs like Preschool for All?
JR: It's to be fair with everybody. Not everybody is able to afford care. But having a place ready for these families may give parents an opportunity to get a job and be out of the home for eight hours down the road. It's a great opportunity for families. So if I work with those programs – Baby Promise, Preschool Promise, Preschool for All – I won't be debating with private families on the money. And I don't want to go through battling if a family is behind on paying, but I do need to pay my employees on time. So I prefer working with these three institutions, because these programs take care of enrollment and allocation.
PEL: Do you have any advice or anything you would say to providers who are currently thinking about joining PFA or the other programs you work with?
JR: Yes. I would like to tell all providers that they should try. Because if we want to give the best service, we need to have people from outside supporting us and helping us see what could be better. These programs are coming to our side to make it a better place. It's not to spoil the work or tell you only bad things. The only purpose they have is to enhance your program. Because if your program is enhanced, families will be happy, and children will be served better. In those three programs, there are people that are very professional, and they are coming to our side with only one goal: to help us be better.
PEL: What is your overall vision for your business, maybe in ten years down the road?
JR: In ten years, I really would like to see that my centers are not just a place where kids are taken care of, but that we’re graduating citizens with a very good foundation. On top of that, I want us to be the best place, to have the best program. I want all the families happy, and everybody served with equity. I don’t want to exclude anybody, because we all deserve an opportunity to bloom in this world.
Why not think that way? Why not dream about that thing? One thing I have learned in my life is that if you don't have dreams, there's nothing you are going to be doing. Because when you dream, then the next day, you make that dream better, and the following day, much better, and much better… until you have a solid idea of what you want to do. Once you have the idea, then go for it.
I also have a dream for my employees. If I have a better teaching place, a better caring place, they will do the best they can, and I will give them the opportunity to grow, to be better. I love to recruit people that are not knowledgeable yet. I would like to coach them, teach them, but I have only one requirement: you need to have the guts to go to college and get an education.
That's my first request to everyone. “Are you sure you want to go back to college and get your certification in early learning? If the answer is yes, welcome.” And I’ll hire them as an assistant. By the time I get a new classroom, this assistant will have a degree and hands-on job experience. This assistant will know the curriculum backward and forward, and they can become the lead teacher.
That's what I'm doing with all my staff. I have three of them graduating this year! And since I'm going to have two more classrooms, I'm going to move them into roles as a teacher.
PEL: Jorge, thank you for sharing your story and your insights. We’re so glad to have you and your program as a part of Preschool for All!