For the first time in years, Pammel Court Daycare does not have a waiting list for its Rainbow Preschool and Flex Care programs, and employees are worried.

Christine Scheeler, administrative assistant for Pammel Court Daycare, said Rainbow Preschool and Flex Care are the programs that have seen the greatest decrease of participants.

“We had to combine our morning programs at Rainbow and Flex Care because neither were full enough to staff both of them,” Scheeler said.

Scheeler cited many reasons for the decrease in children. The two biggest reasons were misconceptions about the recently opened Vet Med Daycare and lack of publicity about Pammel Court Daycare.

Vet Med Daycare, 1700 Christianson Drive, opened this year after the University Child Care Committee identified a need for more daycare on campus.

However, Scheeler said she has unsuccessfully tried to get a new building for the Pammel Court Daycare.

She wrote ISU President Martin Jischke a letter Sept. 15, addressing the possibility of a new building for the Pammel Court Daycare.

“The way I see it, we are in desperate need of new facilities,” Scheeler said. “We accommodate 105 children, 70 percent of them coming from Iowa State families, and we are housed in World War II huts.”

Scheeler said for the past 10 years Pammel Court Daycare has been told they would receive a new facility.

“They built a new finance building right in front of us and the new Vet Med Daycare. I want to know when will we get ours,” Scheeler said.

Sonia Johnson, child-care consultant of ISU Child Care Services, said the Vet Med Daycare location was chosen because the college was very supportive of the idea, and there was a lot of outdoor area available for the children to play.

“There was not a deficiency at Pammel Court. They have had extensive waiting lists for many years,” Johnson said. “Vet Med is just an expansion of ISU’s daycare system.”

However, Pammel Court employees said their daycare is being isolated from the rest of the university.

“They dismantled all of the Pammel Court buildings except for ours. We now have a ghost town between us and the rest of the school,” Scheeler said.

With the recent construction in the Pammel Court area, Scheeler said the daycare is practically invisible to passersby.

“Our signs were also taken down when the new finance building was being erected, and they were never put up again,” she said. “Now no one knows we are here.”

Scheeler said she has heard that many people call Vet Med Daycare because they think the Pammel Court Daycare has been moved to that location.

“Two of our staff moved out there, but other than that, we are all still here,” Scheeler said.

Cari Steinhausen, administrative assistant at Vet Med Daycare, said she has heard nothing about this.

“We haven’t gotten any calls, to my knowledge, asking if this was the Pammel Court Daycare,” Steinhausen said. “Our biggest question here is if we serve the Ames community, as well as ISU students.”

Vet Med Daycare only serves ISU students, faculty and staff.

Scheeler also said their decline in numbers may stem from the fact that Pammel Court housing is no longer in use.

She said many of the families who had lived there brought their children to their daycare because it was close to home.

Though no definite plans have been made, the possibility of a new facility may not be too far off.

Scheeler said she has heard talk about construction of a building that would house Pammel Court Daycare, a study center and the Pammel Court Grocery.

The building would be located on the other side of Hawthorne Court.