Quemazon Community Childcare wins grant to support growth, quality goals

A new grant to Quemazon Community Childcare is aimed at keeping a local provider steady while it grows, a practical issue for Los Alamos families and employers who depend on dependable childcare to stay in the workforce.

The award from the Los Alamos Community Foundation will help the nonprofit through a year of transition and growth as it works toward the New Mexico FOCUS exemplary rating. The photo with the grant showed Francine Martinez, the Quemazon Montessori School director; Kayci Miller, the business manager; Lukas Zavorka, a board member; and students receiving the grant from Liz Martineau, the foundation’s executive director.

That focus on quality matters in a county where childcare is tied directly to labor force stability. Los Alamos National Laboratory has described childcare shortages as mission critical for its 17,000 employees and the surrounding community, and it has worked with local providers and UNM-Los Alamos on efforts to expand childcare capacity and the early childhood educator workforce. For employers across Los Alamos County, reliable care is not a side issue. It affects whether parents can keep working, accept new hours, or take jobs in the first place.

The grant also fits into a broader effort to strengthen the nonprofit side of the county’s civic infrastructure. The Los Alamos Community Foundation says its mission is to support philanthropy, highlight community needs and back nonprofits serving Los Alamos County. Its grant rules require applicants to be active 501(c)(3) organizations located in and providing services in the county, making Quemazon Community Childcare the kind of local provider the foundation was created to assist.

FOCUS, New Mexico’s tiered quality rating and improvement system for early childhood programs, is designed to strengthen programs and assess quality and achievement. State materials say it can also help licensed providers through higher per-child subsidy reimbursement rates, training, workforce development, technical support and networking opportunities. For a small nonprofit trying to build quality credentials while staying open and reliable, those supports can be as important as the award itself.

The local stakes are sharpened by the broader shortage across New Mexico. A child care gap analysis cited in local reporting found a statewide shortfall of 13,942 childcare slots in 2024. In that context, the Quemazon grant looks less like a ceremonial boost than a sign that Los Alamos is still investing in the kind of early childhood capacity that keeps families in town and keeps the local economy moving.