HELENA, MT - Governor Greg Gianforte yesterday celebrated the recent opening of Pete’s Place Early Childhood Education Center, a newly expanded childcare facility operated by St. Peter’s Health in Helena.

“As we work to expand child care in Montana, it’s great to celebrate organizations like St. Pete’s who are committed to providing child care for their employees,” Gov. Gianforte said. “We’ll continue to come alongside employers providing care all while investing to build a stronger child care workforce.”

Providing child care to St. Peter’s Health employees since the mid 1980’s, Pete’s Place opened their new location on August 26 in the former Helena Public Schools Ray Bjork Learning Center. In their previous facility, the provider could only offer care to 44 young Montanans, now, Pete’s Place has the capacity to care for up to 240.

Touring the center and visiting with staff, the governor heard from St. Peter’s Health CEO Wade Johnson about the center and the reopening.

“It’s been great to partner with Helena Public Schools to repurpose this old school building. It’s a win for us and our employees, a win for the school with a new source of revenue, and a win for the community as we work to increase access to child care,” Johnson said.

Increasing access to quality, affordable child care is a top priority for the governor.

Pete’s Place Early Childhood Education is an approved Best Beginnings Child Care Scholarship care provider and was awarded a $1 million ARPA Childcare Innovation and Infrastructure Grant by the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) in 2022. Funds from the grant were put towards the nearly $3 million investment in the new facility.

In accordance with the governor’s commitment to expanding access to quality and affordable child care for Montana families, DPHHS in 2021 initiated a comprehensive needs assessment to identify where unnecessary regulatory barriers for licensed and registered child care providers in Montana exist, while maintaining requirements necessary to ensure the safety and well-being on children in care.

One change identified was to amend the qualifying age for a base role as a teacher in a child care center from 18 to 16 to allow more qualified Montanans to enter the field.

In addition, Gov. Gianforte has prioritized expanding apprenticeship and work-based learning opportunities for Montana’s students to receive paid, supervised, on-the-job training in the health care and child care fields.