Facilities History

The South Madison Center initially served children from 2yrs 9mos old through kindergarten age. The Center was open 51 weeks per year from 7am – 5:30pm daily, Monday through Friday. Tuition was based on a family’s ability to pay and children did not have to live in the neighborhood to attend. However, childcare was generally free or offered at low tuition rates to families living in nearby neighborhoods.

In the 1970s, CDI began offering summer school for 5 and 6-year old. By February 1969, CDI was operating four centers:

1. First United Methodist Church on Wisconsin Avenue for 14 children ages 3 to 5 during the school year, and ages 3 to 7 over the summer.
2. Middleton Community Church.
3. South Madison Day Care Center.
4. Beth El Child Care Center.

In total, 116 children were served in these four schools. Parents were charged $16 per week (the equivalent to $105 per week in 2014).

To raise funds and support community building in South Madison, CDI hosted an annual carnival. Its first event took place in 1971 at the center. Two years later, the South Madison Block Party was launched in collaboration with the South Madison Neighborhood Center (now the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County). Proceeds from the Block Party supported the annual operating costs of CDI and the Neighborhood Center. In the early 1980s, the Block Party annually drew between 3,500 – 5,000 people to South Madison’s Penn Park for food, music, dance, vendors, live entertainment, a regional softball tournament and popular cross-state basketball tournament that attracted teams from as far away as Illinois, Indian, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Missouri.

Between 1994 and 2006, CDI faced the threat of closure several times. However, each time, a donor stepped in to provide temporary support. In a Sunday, June 18, 2006 news article in the Wisconsin State Journal, journalist Bill Wineke pointed out that the “Day Care Center on Fisher Street was meant to be a sign that Madison cares. It was built with the assistance of White Christian congregations. Members of my own church, the Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ, actually took out second mortgages on their homes in order to help out.” In 2006, CDI launched a $200,000 fundraising campaign to avoid closing the center. According to Steve Lein, CDI’s executive director at the time, the organization was losing $30,000 monthly. He credited the challenges to three things: (1) an enrollment of 26 students instead of the 65 they originally projected, (2) inadequate government funding, and (3) management problems that existed before he arrived.