The former child care center at NHTI, which closed in April because of financial issues caused by COVID-19, will be operated this fall by the Boys and Girls Club of Central New Hampshire.
The community college announced Friday that the Boys and Girls Club has been selected to lease the site, which served some 60 children from infants through kindergarten when it closed.
NHTI said the club “plans to operate a program that will provide child care for families in the region and serve as a lab school and practicum site for students in the college’s Early Childhood Education.” The club will lease the site beginning Aug. 1 and plans to open for childcare by Sept. 1.
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. Its 21 staff members worked remotely, assisting parents and helping other departments at NHTI in admissions and marketing work, but April 14 the community college shut it down because the school couldn’t afford to pay the center’s employees since tuition from students was not coming in.
In a statement Friday, the college wrote: “The proposal submitted by the BGCCNH met several of the college’s top priorities, including the continuation of mentoring opportunities in a high-quality lab-school setting for college students training to be early childhood educators. Other key elements in the proposal included the BGCCNH’s desire to maintain accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAYEC), and to incorporate a sliding fee scale to help meet the costs of care for full-time NHTI students.”