Dionne Morrissette is taking over as coordinator of Child and Youth Services as enrollment in its programs has returned to pre-COVID numbers.
With the federal return-to-office mandate, “our enrollment has skyrocketed in all of our programs, and we are back to where we were prior to COVID,” said Morrissette, who has been acting coordinator since July 2 and will be permanent coordinator, effective Sept. 25. She succeeds Andre Terry. “Right now, we are servicing 269 children in our child development centers, we are at 151 children in our school age program, and our youth program is servicing 170 youth.”
CYS programs include the Child Development Centers at Goss and Mills roads, school age services for students from kindergarten through fifth grades, youth services for middle and high school students and sports. The combined enrollment for afterschool programs at the School Age Center and Middle School and Teen Center has increased by about 100 children, compared to the previous school year, according to Morrissette.
During COVID, the school age and youth programs were shut down and the two child development centers on post were consolidated to one to service mission essential personnel only.
“The return-to-office has been wonderful for CYS,” she said. “We’ve gone back to what we were before COVID which has resulted, in my opinion, in higher staff morale and staff engagement, bringing new, excited staff on board, providing them with that professional development and training that they need to be successful in the early childhood arena. … I always focus on training to ensure our current personnel has the skills that they need to excel in their careers and advance if they want to.
“We had to ramp back up with staffing, getting new people on board,” she said. “The return-to-office also increased our applicant pool. We’ve had a very steady applicant pool for our positions.”
CYS now has about 190 staff members, including teachers, management and leadership and support staff, with a mix of full-time and part-time personnel and employees with flexible hours.
Morrissette has worked in childcare for the last 20 years, since she was a child and youth program assistant at a child development center at an Army base in Grafenwohr, Germany. Her 21-year-old son, Antonio, was a year old when she first joined CYS.
“I started in the classroom, and I came up through the ranks,” Morrissette said. She became the facility director at the Goss Road Child Development Center at Redstone in 2012 and was named the program operations specialist in 2024.
“I bring knowledge and experience in all of our programs (to her new position), understanding all aspects of our programs from the classroom, from the front line, all the way to the administrative duties. I’ve experienced all aspects in my various roles in CYS.”
The mission of CYS is “to be there to support Army families and children, to ensure that they have quality early childhood education programs that support their needs and ease their minds so they can focus on their mission.”
Morrissette is a former military spouse and now a military veteran spouse, whose son participated in CYS programs and whose 5-year-old twin daughters with her husband, Bobby Morrissette, are now involved in CYS programs.
“The rewarding aspect of it – it’s personal and professional for me,” she said.
Morrissette received a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Walden University and is finishing up a master’s in early childhood administration and leadership, also from Walden University. She previously received an associate degree in early childhood education through Central Texas College and earned a Child Development Associate Credential, which is awarded by the Council for Professional Recognition.
“This position has been a goal of mine since I started out in management within CYS, so it feels really good to have achieved this goal through all the years of hard work, dedication.”
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