Article Link: http://stage.exchangepress.com/article/meet-marlys-engebretson-director-sioux-valley-hostpital-child-care-center-sioux-falls-south-dakota/5013528/
Seventeen years ago, Marlys Engebretson, with six years of preschool teaching under her belt, decided it was time for a new challenge. She successfully applied for the job as director of the Sioux Valley Hospital Child Care Center. Not only was the move from teacher to director a challenging one, but Marlys chose to make it even more demanding by expanding the program dramatically and attaining status as one of the first NAEYC accredited centers in South Dakota - a status that has been successfully renewed four times!The foundation of the Sioux Valley Hospital Child Care Center actually took place three years before Marlys arrived on the scene. Al Scarbrough, the hospital's vice president of human resources at the time, led a campaign to open a center that culminated in the hiring of a director, Marilyn Jones, in July of 1980.
Marilyn was given the task of opening the center - designing space, hiring staff, ordering equipment, setting up, planning the curriculum - in 30 days. Somehow she succeeded, and last month the center honored this achievement with a 20th anniversary celebration.
Within a year, the center had outgrown its original location and moved into the lower level of the church across ...