The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
Parents looking for child care in Norfolk will have two fewer options next year.
Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters informed parents and employees Monday that its popular child care center will close June 12. And Old Dominion University's Child Development Center is discontinuing its program for babies.
Employees of Discovery Care Center were told in person, and parents were told as they came to pick up their children.
The center on Redgate Avenue provides care for 108 children from 6 weeks old up to school age. It was especially popular among health care workers because of its proximity to CHKD and Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. The center's hours - 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. - were also longer than most centers.
The day care center opened in 1989 on property leased by CHKD from Sentara. Its 20-year lease is due to expire in 2009.
A written statement released by Amy Sampson, a vice president at CHKD, said the center was losing money.
"With our lease for our building and land expiring in 2009, continued operating losses at the Center, an increasingly costly regulatory environment and the economic pressures facing all industries today, we have concluded that we could no longer fund child care but rather must focus exclusively on our core mission of providing medical care," the statement said.
The center employs 28 people. Sampson said career counseling will be provided to them, along with information about other job openings within the health care system. Sampson's statement also said the center will help families find other child care providers in the community.
The day care center is not the only one experiencing difficulties.
Earlier this month, ODU's Child Development Center announced that the program would stop accepting new children into the "infant and waddler" classrooms, which includes children 6 weeks to 16 months of age.
Jennifer Mullen, director of media relations for Old Dominion University, said the decision was based on two factors - the higher cost of caring for the younger age groups and the mission of the university.
Students studying at ODU's Darden College of Education do not receive credit for working in the classrooms that care for children younger than 16 months of age.
Those classrooms were also a financial drain on the center because more staff is required to care for children younger than 16 months.
There are 21 children in those classrooms, and they are expected to move into toddler classes by the end of the summer. The center will then have more room for toddler and preschool care.
Mullen said there are parents and people in the community, however, who have asked whether other funding sources might be tapped to keep the infant-and-early-toddler program going.
Those options are being explored.
Elizabeth Simpson, (757) 446-2635, elizabeth.simpson@pilotonline.com
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Discovery Employees & Parents Discover New Way
While center based child care has become increasingly difficult to operate in the financial black with the level of new regulations and our current economic times, it is not impossible. The space that is presently occupied by Discovery is premier, (Class A) and expensive. It's unlikely that Sentara is going to offer the location at a give away price. While CHKD is a not-for-profit organization, its neighbor is a business facing struggles of its own in today’s economic climate.
A possible solution - I remember when the center first began in the church located at the entrance of the parking lots. Have the parents thought of forming a co-op with the employees and reopening as a new entity? Churches such as this are not customized to the specification that you have in your current building; however, a partnership with the church could provide this much needed service in a facility that could possibly meet the need. From there – perhaps the center can move and rebuild in a future location.
We have operated our programs in churches for twenty years because the commercial space was cost prohibitive. We felt that to provide high quality child care, we needed to place t
Another Double Standard
When/if our society has men being the primary caretakers of children, then child care centers and providers will be profitable.
Devastated....
Surely another solution might be found? Perhaps Sentara could give CHKD a break on the cost of the lease? Times are tough for all us, even hospitals, and I understand that...but knowing the long term health and social development impacts that quality child care (or lack thereof) has on children, certainly there HAS to be a better solution. I'd like to know how much of a loss they are talking about...and if there is something that we as a community can do to keep things going. I know I'd be willing to pay more if needed to keep this center open and the staff there employed. In times like this shouldn't we all work together to find community solutions to keeping people employed, children cared for, and the economy moving?
Devastating news...
This is really devastating news to those of us with children at CHKD Discovery Care. We are equally as devastated for our own children as we are for the wonderful, caring, and talented staff there. Quality child care is hard to find, especially for those of us who work in health care and need extended hours.
Some of the staff there have been working at this center for well over 20 years. That kind of consistency, quality, and knowledge of working with children is irreplaceable. I worry that given their tenure there they will not be able to find work with a comparable salary once the center is closed.
I am not comfortable with home child care for a variety of reasons and finding another center-based care situation with these hours will be almost impossible. And, the staff there are more than just child care providers, for many of us with multiple children who have been there since shortly after their birth, they are family. We've had children at this center since 2002...our children will simply be crushed to be leaving the staff and other children with whom they have grown up.
Surely another solution might be found? Perhaps Sentara could give CHKD a break on the c
OH PLEASE!!!
C'mon CHKD! This is bogus! Yeah, you may be losing a little money and the lease is about to expire but you can definately come up with more solutions. Maybe partnering with Sentara Norfolk General so that the staff at both of those hospitals would not be out in the cold. Between the two hospitals, I'm sure you could find the room. Just at SNGH, there are 2 or more floors in the A and B wings sitting empty. CHKD has property that has been donated to them. There are other options rather than closing the center down.