Described as the ‘backbone’ of Stop Six, this educator has been teaching for five decades
When Letha Roblow first started as an early educator over five decades ago she made about $300 a month, with limited resources and training.
She wandered into a center run by the Day Care Association of Fort Worth and Tarrant County just a year after it was chartered as a nonprofit to provide child care services. She was given an interview the next day.
“’Well, I like your smile,’” she recalled the director at the time saying. “’I like the way you are honest about what you want to do.’”
Roblow, who was raised in Stop Six, was a teacher for four years before she worked her way up, first to assistant director and later helping open new centers.
In 2001, the organization would come to be known as Child Care Associates after it grew into one of the largest early learning organizations in the region.
Along the way, and in the years since, the organization has become a leader in defining high quality early learning programs, and pushed the conversation forward on modernizing child care compensation and standards. But the process to get there has been a long one, and Roblow has been there every step of the way.
Parents and fellow CCA educators say Roblow’s passion and commitment to children have defined her enduring career.
Kentrell D. Tate, a parent volunteer who recently started working at the center as a nap helper, described Roblow as the “backbone” of the Stop Six community, citing her work with young children.
“The kids love her, and they respect her,” he said. “She is also a big deal to the community (because) she always has an open ear and has always been there when someone needs help.”
The seasoned early educator has been key in setting up several early learning centers across Tarrant County, and spearheaded a food pantry program that started in Stop Six and expanded to child care centers across the county.
Helena Mosely, CCA’s cirector of Head Start and early Head Start, said Roblow’s commitment to early education brought her to tears when she interviewed for the role.
“It was breathtaking for me,” she said.
But the path wasn’t always easy.
Limited funds at the child care center
“Back then I can remember that sometimes it wasn’t even enough to make ends meet,” Roblow recalled from Rosedale V Child Development Center in the Stop Six neighborhood, where she is the campus director. “I’ve watched the money come up a lot, it kept going up and getting better.”
The resources in classrooms were lacking when she began, with basic amenities like first-aid kits missing, and incomplete toys for the kids.
“The puzzles back then, if we were missing a piece, we would use what we called this wood glue that we would use to make the missing puzzle piece, and then paint what was missing,” she said. “The funds were not good.”
For the first several years, Roblow said she was not offered a retirement plan, and some weeks she and her fellow early educators went without pay entirely. But she said she felt a commitment to her community, and the neighborhood where she was born and raised.
“This is home,” she said. “It’s growing, and now I am going to be here to see it grow better. Every time I get the chance I try to see where I can contribute something or another.”
The conditions gradually improved, with extra money added in as a retirement account was opened after the first couple of years and standards rising along with the resources.
While the conditions and compensation have increased since then, her commitment never wavered.
“I’ve spent my entire career with Child Care Associates, 52 years — can you believe it?” she said. “Fifty-two years is a long time, but I’ve never wanted to do anything other than this and I am not ready to retire. I just need to keep going with my kids.”
The secret to continuing her passion after so many years, Roblow said, is to love what you do.
Low pay continues for day care teachers
Roblow said that she is not worried about the amount she makes anymore, but is looking now to the next generation of early educators as plans to increase wages are discussed on the local, state and national level.
“I’m at an age where I think I’m pretty good ... I will be good when I retire,” she said. “But I want the families to do as well, I want other teachers to do as well.”
Her experience nearly five decades ago struggling to make ends meet is still a reality for many early educators today.
Preschool and day care teachers continue to leave the industry at record levels, according to recently released data — with a combination of low pay and unforgiving working conditions amid the pandemic driving them to other jobs.
Some have left for jobs as servers, or the retail industry in order to make ends meet, while others have left the workforce completely.
Roblow said it is time for that to change.
“You have commercial centers that don’t get funded like we do, but I think it is going to get there, and I am hoping that it does,” she said. “Because they work hard.”
“We might be competition but to me, children are children and everybody’s working with children the same way and I think they should get the same,” she said.
The staffing shortage that many advocates have called a crisis has affected Rosedale V, causing the staff to close one classroom due to lack of teachers.
“You know what I did, I took that classroom, and I mingled in with the other three classrooms,” she said. “So both parents wouldn’t have to stay home and take care of their own children. So it’s been a struggle here the last couple of years, but we’re getting better.”
Despite the struggles of the past years, and the surging threat of a new variant, Roblow said she is hopeful for the future of child care in Stop Six, and Fort Worth.
“I am hopeful that we will get over this pandemic soon,” she said. “But my staff’s ...morale is always good, and they are excited that we’re doing something to make sure everyone knows what is going on and that they know they are supported.”
Veteran teacher serves all students
Roblow said her most cherished memories come from learning and teaching students from a variety of backgrounds.
Just this year, she has learned how to communicate with parents that only speak Spanish through translation apps on their phones, expanding her ability to connect with a growing demographic in the community.
Years ago, she recalls working with a student with a developmental disability that couldn’t learn to tie his shoes. So she nailed a shoe to a board, and worked with him for several days, handing the board back and forth, walking him through the motions.
“Within a day or so that child learned how to tie his own shoes,” she said. “And his mother came back to me the next day and she pulled me in and hugged me ... and it just brought tears to our eyes. I cherish that moment, I really do.”
Mosley said the food pantry program started by Roblow is now in three-fourths of the Child Care Associates centers.
“Through her innovation, people are being served in ways that we never would have imagined,” she said. “Innovation doesn’t have to be high-tech, it is just saying here is what resources we have and here is how we are going to use these resources.”
That spirit, and the resources available became even more important in March of 2020, when closures rippled through the community and put many families in impossible situations.
COVID-19 hits child care sector hard
Roblow said that the last two years spent dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic have been the hardest of her entire career.
“The parents struggled to make ends meet,” she said. “They keep their kids here in the center, and when we had to close due to the pandemic, I thought about my parents not being able to go to work.”
As soon as regulations allowed, Roblow worked to open as many classrooms open as possible, and has worked to ensure seats for all the kids she can serve.
Across the county Child Care Associates helped many centers and families during the height of the pandemic by providing 10,000 pounds of food weekly to families, according to the organization, as well as at-home deliveries of diapers, meals and formula. Roblow personally delivered similar items to families of kids she took care of in the Stop Six neighborhood.
Roblow worked from home during months of lock down but kept in regular contact with the parents of the kids she cared for.
“If they needed something, there were a lot of times I would go out and get it for them,” she said. “I was getting a check, and my insurance company said, well you’re not traveling so I’m going to cut your insurance.”
“Well, there is some more money that I can use to help somebody else,” she said.
