Pairs of little boots lined the pathway in front of the Child and Family Development Center at NHTI Thursday morning.
Bags of gloves, mittens and snow pants were all outside waiting to be picked up by parents of toddlers who left belongings at the center in March, not knowing their children wouldn’t return. Crates of snacks, water bottles and art supplies were stacked on top of each other.
Throughout the morning, parents arrived in their cars, loaded up their belongings and drove away.
“If they aren’t closing it for good, then why are they asking us to pick up everything?” said mother Reagan Bissonnette, bending down to pick up a bag labeled with the name of her 4-year-old son, Sage.
The Child and Family Development Center at NHTI closed to students on March 23, when most families pulled their children from the program because of the pandemic.
All 21 staff members continued to work remotely, assisting parents with their children through activities and advice and helping other departments at NHTI in admissions and marketing work.
However, NHTI President Dr. Gretchen Mullin-Sawicki wrote in a letter to parents on April 14 that the community college can no longer afford to pay the center’s employees while tuition from students is not coming in.
All staff were told this week they would be losing their jobs, effective May 7. Parents were emailed with time slots when they could pick up their children’s belongings at the center on Thursday.
Mullin-Sawicki said the community college does plan to re-open the center when it can, but that the program will likely undergo restructuring. Perhaps it will be run by an outside agency, she said. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, it was already struggling financially, she said. Its expenses, the highest of which are personnel, exceed its revenue by about $280,000 each year, she said.
The exact plan for the future is uncertain, she said.
“I cannot tell you, nor can you tell me, when our CFDC families will be ready to return their children to a childcare setting nor what CFDC staff will choose to do after May 7,” she said.
Parents said they hope that restructuring doesn’t mean that CFDC will stop being a hands-on laboratory for NHTI students studying early childhood education.
“I have no doubt that most childcare workers are caring and dedicated, but the expertise – keeping the children safe and happy, developmentally appropriate activities, keeping up to date with the latest research – is harder to come by. By taking lab students, CFDC is training the next generation,” said William Moir, whose 9-month-old daughter had been attending CFDC since she was just over 3 months old. “Replacing CFDC with a private daycare is unacceptable to us.”
Kerstin Cornell, a mother of a 4-year-old at CFDC, agreed.
“There is no doubt that a larger conversation needs to be had regarding the availability of high- quality early childhood care and education and where the financial responsibility lies for ensuring that vital institutions such as NHTI’s CFDC lab school are fiscally viable,” Cornell said.