Former ND early childhood services official authors new book – Jamestown Sun

JAMESTOWN — A retired state early childhood official who lives in Jamestown has written a book, “Early Care & Education For All Children: My Over 40-year Journey.”

Corinne Bennett served as the state administrator of early childhood services from 1991-2006 in the North Dakota Department of Human Services.

The book’s back cover says her memoir shares the story of her journey “from a classroom teacher in 1970s North Dakota to a relentless champion for children’s access to quality child care across the nation.”

Bennett said she was sorting through a number of items that she had collected over the years during her career when her daughter, Chantel Harr, suggested she write a book.

“I started writing it in 2023,” she said.

The book was released in March.

Bennett earned a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education and minors in early childhood education and business administration from Jamestown College. She also did graduate work in child development and family science at North Dakota State University.

Her book, which includes photos, newspaper clippings, notes and other documents during her career, details her experiences from her first teaching job at Courtenay, North Dakota, to serving as state administrator of early childhood services in the North Dakota Department of Human Services.

Along the way, she taught at Lincoln Elementary School and St. John’s Academy in Jamestown and became the child care center director at the North Dakota State Hospital. Bennett noted that she helped the child care center at the NDSH earn national accreditation, something only two other child care centers had achieved at that time in North Dakota.

As the state administrator of early childhood services, her work included developing, funding and statewide leadership to early childhood programs and projects; providing oversight and program supervision to the statewide early childhood services regulatory/licensing system; negotiating, preparing and monitoring more than $4 million in contracts over the biennium, and evaluating legislative needs and testifying to legislative committees, according to her resume.

“I liked developing programs to help young children,” Bennett said, of what she enjoyed in her work. “… I liked working with people. I developed so many friends.”

She also liked working with the Legislature, she said, noting she worked with Democrats and Republicans.

Bennett considers one of her most significant accomplishments in that position to be the work she did to establish Child Care Resource and Referral agencies in the state. At the time, there were two, in Grand Forks and Fargo, which were affiliated with East Grand Forks and Moorhead, respectively. She contracted with Lutheran Social Services to establish them in each of the state’s eight regions with federal funding that became available for the first time, she said.

Child Care Resource and Referral provided referrals of licensed child care and preschool programs to families seeking child care or a preschool experience, according to information that Bennett includes in her book. It also provided support and resources to child care providers.

Another accomplishment she cited was working with Don Schmid, director of the Children and Family Services Division of the North Dakota Department of Human Services, to meet with the tribes in the state on securing federal funding to provide quality child care on the reservations. Bennett contracted with Lutheran Social Services to work with the tribes to get their own federal child care money and to develop programs and child care licensing standards.

Bennett also noted her work with other stakeholders to develop a strategic plan, which later helped her secure $1 million in Bush Foundation funding for infant toddler training for child care providers. The funding was provided annually for the 15 years that Bennett worked in her position, she said.

That strategic plan and Bush Foundation funding award came to the attention of North Dakota Lt. Gov. Rosemarie Myrdal. Bennett and Myrdal became friends, Bennett said, traveling to a national training and other events together.

Bennett also writes about an attempt to falsely fire her that led to her eventual resignation. She later worked as the manager of the Child Care and Adult Food Program for the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction/Child Nutrition before retiring in 2012.

Bennett said she hopes her book appeals to people who are considering, working in or retired from the child care and education fields and parents who want to know more about child care.

She also offers suggestions to improve education for children.

“At one time … our country was at the top of other countries in our education system and now we’re at the bottom,” Bennett said. “… Look how St. John’s Academy and the Victory Christian Lutheran Church have grown tremendously. Do you know why? They’ve added child care and pre-K to their schools. And I think the public school system needs to get on board because the Jamestown school system enrollment’s going down, down, down and theirs is going up, up, up. …”

She said if child care was in the school system, all children would get quality early care and education.

“It would help them so that when they get to kindergarten and first grade, they’re ready to learn to read,” she said.

Children should also be required to speak English before entering public school systems, Bennett said.

“You cannot teach in a classroom when children are speaking different languages,” she said. “It’s chaotic. And they not only are not learning but the English-speaking children aren’t learning because there’s too much confusion in the classroom of the teacher dealing with that.”

“Early Care & Education For All Children: My Over 40-year Journey” is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Junk in the Trunk.

Sales from copies of the book at Junk in the Trunk will be used for a scholarship that Bennett and Harr annually sponsor at Jamestown High School in memory of Bennett’s son, Kent, who died in 1994.

Kathy Steiner has been the editor of The Jamestown Sun since 1995. She graduated from Valley City State College with a bachelor’s degree in English and studied mass communications at North Dakota State University, Fargo. She reports on business, government and community topics in the Jamestown area. Reach her at 701-952-8449 or [email protected].