Lunzman takes over as new director of the ROCDC

There’s been a recent changing of the guard at the Red Oak Child Development Center.
On June 30, center staff and visitors bid goodbye to interim executive director Gayle Allensworth and welcomed new director Jordan Lunzman. While she hasn’t been exclusively in Red Oak, Lunzman said she has been a long-time resident of Southwest Iowa.
“I went to Farragut to school, once upon a time when it still was a school. I graduated there and stayed local, went to UNO to college where I got my bachelor’s and master’s. My master’s is in speech-language pathology. And in the last 11 years, I’ve worked with kids mainly from birth to first grade in early childhood with kiddos with speech and language communication disorders with the Green Hills Area Education Agency,” stated Lunzman.
In fact, for the past year, Lunzman said she’s worked in the building which houses the ROCDC, where she learned about the opening for the director’s position.
“I have a good relationship with Gayle, and since my office was right here,  I often saw Gayle. I would pop in and say hi, and around that time, I was also kind of looking for a new opportunity. She told me that she was ready to go back to being retired, and that I should look at taking over her position, advised Lunzman. “From there, I talked to her more about the steps and what goes on at the center on a daily basis. Also, since my office was here, I’ve gotten to see a lot of the amazing things that’s been going on.”
From there, Lunzman approached the ROCDC Board about the position, meeting with a couple of members of the board for a first interview, then expanding to meeting with members of the staff where they asked Lunzman questions and talked about her experience and what Lunzman was looking for. After a combined meeting with the board and the employees, Lunzman said the board approved hiring Lunzman as the center’s new director.  
“During the month of June, I’ve been kind of on-boarding with Gayle, which made the process of stepping in as a director that much easier while we went over things. We work a lot with HHS of Iowa to keep our child care center in-line with quality care and up to standards, and learning about all of that was a lot, but it’s important to keep this place safe and going,” said Lunzman,
As for the center itself, Lunzman said they’re serving quite a few kids and space is tight.
“We are pretty up there in numbers, but we always have room. We have a wait list, and then as kiddos transition at their birthday to move up to different rooms, we review to see what spots we have open and capacity,” Lunzman explained. “We care for kids who are six weeks old to four- and five-year-olds, before they get into kindergarten. And then we provide care for kids up to 12 years old through before and after school care. We’re open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and they bus the kids in during the morning over to Inman, and then they bus them back. At this point, we do have some open spots available.”
Among her early goals as she takes over the new position is building up her rapport with the staff.
“I really want to build relationships with the staff. I have met with a lot of them one-on-one during the month of June just to hear what they love about working here and get to know them a little bit better. Another big goal is working with the community to get our name and face out in the community even more. The community helps a lot with the center. I think the center is really needed in Red Oak, and so I’m glad that we’re here,” Lunzman commented. “Gayle has worked very hard, especially the last year and a half, to further get this place up to the standard that it is. On top of that, I really want to get out there, and our board has talked about some procedures we’re going to do to get out into the community and keep working on different grants so we can fund different things in the child care center.”
For Lunzman, continuing to expand on her career teaching and helping kids is what she’s most looking forward to.
“Being able to work with kiddos is truly my passion, as well as getting to know the families and working with those families in the community. I’ve met all the staff and working with them is going to be fantastic. I’m really looking forward to now getting to know the families beyond just helping them care for their kiddos every day,” Lunzman explained. “It’s a big ask for families to leave their kids all day while they’re at work. It’s now up to us to produce those quality teachers and staff so they know that their child is safe but is also having fun. That’s what we aim for.”
Lunzman is also appreciative of the positive response she’s gotten from the community since taking over.
“Red Oak has been a very welcoming community so far and I am really appreciative of that and I look forward to working with all the kiddos, the family, and the staff to continue to make this place a great quality child care center. My husband and I are currently renting a house outside of Red Oak right now and we plan to build a house here in Red Oak, and both of our kids will be going to the ROCDC as well,” stated Lunzman.
Gayle Allensworth, who has been serving in an interim basis since last year, said she took over because of the need.
“In November of 2024, I started off volunteering as an administrative consultant, as I had retired from serving as a school pricipal and was actually working with my husband, Scott at Allensworth Heating and Cooling. Ihad some extra time and just felt like some of my skill set would help them to get some organizational structures in place, such as master schedules and ways of monitoring training. I was able to right away work with the director and then a couple of the other administrative staff and just start to look at what is really strong. I also spent a lot of time interviewing the staff and finding out what was worth protecting and what we needed to change,” said Allensworth.
It was in April of 2025 that then-executive director Jacque Howell stepped down to move to a new position, which left the center in need of a director.
“Because I had been familiar with everybody and was familiar with the practices, it definitely felt like it was necessary to provide consistency. Any leadership change causes trepidation and concern because people don’t know who’s coming in and so by being able to step right in was nice. We had the gift of each other and we had the gift of familiarity and so we just really started honing in on how to make this place even better,” commented Allensworth.
The first five years of the center, it grew 400%. Allensworth said that any organization that grows 400% in that amount of time will eventually go through a lot of growing pains, so Allensworth focused on what the center is doing well and what it needed to change. After serving as an interim director for a year, Allensworth felt it was time to step back once again.
“We’re expecting a sixth grandchild here in the next couple of weeks and I’m at the point where I’m ready to step back and bi and not being quite tied to the place as much as director,” advised Allensworth.
When it came to her replacement, Allenworth said she’s completely sure the center is being left in good hands.
“Jordan and I have had a long time relationship, both professional and personal, and I could not think of a better person. It almost gives me goosebumps to think of passing this along to her. Because we do know each other and have that connection already, I know she’ll call if she needs anything. I’m currently a member of the ROCDC Board. I look forward to staying on and working with the board and working with Jordan and the team to sort of focus on enhancing classroom practices and behavioral management practices and anything else that they see fit,” Allensworth explained.
While it was a busy year, Allenworth said she wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.
“This has probably been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve been part of.
 It’s very, very different than education. I’ve always thought that teachers in the school system are among the hardest working people and they truly are amazing and they truly change the world with their youth, but childcare providers are often taken for granted for the tremendous amount of work that they do. It’s really important to understand this and I say this all the time now, the brain grows most from ages zero to five and so we have focused on being the most powerful and influential and productive people that we can be at the center so that our kids can get the best that they can have,” Allensworth said. “Also, I think our board is tremendous here. I also think that they don’t get enough credit. One thing is for sure,  I’ll miss the kids tremendously but I will look forward to doing whatever they need me for and look forward to some time outside of here.”
The ROCDC has been developing a rich history in Red Oak. In 2019, efforts to open a child development center were started- a 501c3 was formed, leadership came together, and fundraising began. The initial fundraising campaign brought in over $1.2 million, of which $300,000 was spent on startup expenses and $900,000 is currently invested to assist with funding operations of the center. A partnership was formed with the Red Oak Community School District to house what would become the Red Oak Child Development Center (ROCDC) at one of its too be vacated school buildings. The school district renovated the Washington School building so that it could house a childcare center as well as the school district’s preschool program. In August 2020, a 5 year lease was executed between the school district and ROCDC  and the center opened its doors in September 2020. At that time, the district occupied four rooms and the ROCDC occupied four rooms.  Today, due to demand for childcare, the ROCDC occupies nine rooms (with total enrollment / licensing capacity of 145 children) and the preschool continues to occupy four. In addition to the classroom space, the center features an indoor gymnasium and an outdoor playground.