COO Steven Lara presents the centers’ paper-to-digital journey — and brings two student educators along for the ride.
For years, White House Day Care has been part of the Pennsylvania Early Childhood Education Summit as attendees — learning from programs and leaders across the state. This October, the family-owned Reading centers reached a new milestone: for the first time, they were on the program as presenters.
Chief Operating Officer Steven Lara led a session titled “From Paper to Digital,” telling the honest story of how the centers transformed their entire administrative operation — enrollment, hiring, payroll, compliance, and bilingual family communication — from a fully paper-based system into a modern, largely self-running one, using AI. The throughline of the talk: he did it with a business background and no coding experience, proving the approach is within reach for the small, family-owned programs that make up so much of Pennsylvania’s early-learning landscape.
Just as meaningful as the presentation itself was who stood beside him. Steven brought two members of the White House Day Care team — both currently pursuing degrees in early childhood education — as co-presenters, giving them a chance to represent their centers and step into a professional, statewide setting early in their careers.
“Presenting this year meant a lot, but bringing two of our own team members who are studying ECE meant even more,” said Lara. “This field’s future is in people like them, and I wanted them there for it.”
White House Day Care has operated in Reading since 2006 and holds Keystone STAR 4, Pennsylvania’s highest quality rating. The centers continue to serve roughly 120 children across two bilingual locations — and, as this year’s Summit showed, continue to find new ways to lead.
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