Stacey Hellman taped large pieces of paper to her downtown Erie office walls soon after she became CEO of Early Connections in September.
Each sheet represented one of the nonprofit organization’s four child care facilities: City Center, Harbor Homes, Union City and North East. Hellman listed all of a facility’s open teaching positions on them.
“We had so many open positions that each one had its own sheet,” Hellman said. “The average pay for our teachers at the time was around $15 an hour. … If you go to Target or Walgreen’s, you earn $18 to $20 an hour. I understand why people would go there to support their families as opposed to coming here.”…