Thinking About Starting a Home-Based Child Care Business?

The Windham County Child Care Count coalition, in partnership with the Winston Prouty Center, Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation and BCTV, share a series of conversations with local early childhood professionals to help answer question about opening your own registered child care program. Topics include:

Overview: Melanie Zinn, Owner & CEO of Horizon, Vernon Village & Mulberry Bush Early Learning Programs, shares her experience in starting a childcare program in her home including the initial challenges, licensing and regulation considerations, and the importance of mentorship.


Selectboard Meeting Notes – Manale Begins, FY23 & RTM Loose Ends

yoshi manale brattleboro jan 2022

The Brattleboro Selectboard began 2022 with new Town Manager Octavian Yoshi Manale at the helm. He remained relatively quiet, letting staff do most of the explaining while he adjusted to the new surroundings.

The board made a few FY’23 decisions, punted a few others to another meeting, and helped approve some articles to go before RTM at what they cautioned might be another virtual town meeting.


Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda and Notes – January 4, 2022

The first regular meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard in 2022 is also the start of Yoshi Manale’s tenure as Town Manager. Welcome, Yoshi!

Changes to the Agricultural Land Preservation Fund will be discussed. The board will also consider feeding and providing childcare for Representative Town Meeting, they’ll review goals, and consider some traffic safety items. And, as always, you can bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation.


Selectboard Meeting Notes – Climate Emergency, Homelessness, Addiction, and Flowers

Brattleboro Selectboard

Before the Brattleboro Selectboard could get to regular business, they heard from many agitated citizens on issues such as the homeless, flowers, and librarians getting paid less than homeless day work program employees. This was interrupted by a climate emergency protest, adding to the list of grievances.

Eventually the board got tho their scheduled business of updates on the DBA and Project CARE, approving of contracts, a short discussion of childcare at public meetings, and more. It was quite an outpouring of interest in local government, from many angles.


Selectboard Meeting Notes – Rental Housing, Day Work, Sustainability

Brattleboro Selectboard

The Brattleboro Selectboard held their only meeting of July. Despite objections from many landlords, the board approved a new rental housing inspection program, and despite numerous statements of support they put off deciding on how best to deal with issues of sustainability.

New tax rates for FY20 were set, a 3-month day work pilot program was funded, Groundworks received $100,000 for housing, and more.


Windham County Childcare Survey

Child Care Counts is a task force dedicated to stabilizing and increasing the number of available slots for high quality child care in Windham County. Recognizing that access to child care is a critical economic and workforce development issue, we seek to engage a broad range of partners invested in the issue. We are seeking input from our community members on their experiences as a employers, employees and caregivers.