Carissa Kirschbaum becomes director at Little Sprouts

Little Sprouts Learning Center is under new direction. Carissa Kirschbaum took over as Director in October after serving as interim for the past few months. Kirschbaum first started her career at Haxtun's Little Sprouts Learning Center in 2022.

Kirschbaum grew up and still lives in Merino. After high school, she attended Northeastern Junior College in Sterling where she obtained her Associates degree. She is currently finishing up her qualifications to earn her Director's certificate. Always knowing she wanted to work with kids, Kirschbaum took a job with Iliff Head Start after college and two years into her career, made a move to Brush when a center there opened a new infant room.

"I love the little ones," Kirschbaum said. She also has experience in working in childcare preschool rooms.

In 2022 Kirschbaum started working at Little Sprouts Learning Center under then Director Lindsey Scheopner. She left for a short time to take a job in Sterling, closer to home requiring less travel, but found herself back at Little Sprouts Learning Center earlier this year.

In August, Kirschbaum was named interim Director and several weeks ago, was officially named Director of the local childcare facility.

Kirschbaum said to be Director qualified, one must complete all required early childhood education courses and on top of that, have the required hours of experience in working with children. Directors must also be at least a level three on the Colorado Shines ranking scale. Kirschbaum is currently a level 6.

Colorado Shines is a quality rating and improvement system that monitors and supports early learning programs designed by the Colorado Department of Early Childhood.

Currently, Little Sprouts Learning Center has eight staff members; four of those staff are full-time and four are part-time. Those staff members care for 26 enrolled children ranging in ages from 15 months to eight. At this time, Little Sprouts Learning Center is seeking full-time employment for a lead infant room teacher.

Kirschbaum said there have been applicants for a lead teacher in the front room, however, none hold the qualifications needed to fully open the infant room. To be infant room qualified, individuals must meet all Colorado Shines requirements including infant sleep care.

Little Sprouts Learning Center has three rooms open at the Center right now including the preschool room, ages two and a half to six; school-aged room, for children ages six to 12; and a toddler room, ages 12 to 36 months. Each has a specific theme; preschool is Jungle, school-aged is Outer space and toddlers are in the Barnyard.

Little Sprouts Learning Center has an ongoing wish list for each room. Those links are: Jungle, https://a.co/j8hB6WA; Outer space, https://a.co/g1BdPR3; and Barnyard, https://a.co/dBJpwRh. Direct links to each wish list can also be found on the Center's Facebook page. Cassandra Palmer currently leads the toddler room, Macie Davis is the leader of the preschool room and Jessica Stewart oversees the after-school aged room.

The Center is currently hiring for a lead infant teacher as well as a full-time assistant preschool teacher.

Little Sprouts Learning Center board members plan to host a Gala on Dec. 30 at the Haxtun Community Center. The board is made up of seven members: Sara Huss, Michelle Gorman, Darcy Garretson, Tana Pope, Jocelyn Ham, Meredith Sparks and Aaron Michael.

The Little Sprouts Board of Directors meet once a month.

For more information on Little Sprouts Learning Center contact Kirschbaum at (970) 774-5437.