Jess Holmstrom said that she was “blindsided” by Bucks County Community College’s decision to close the Early Learning Center.
The Bucks psychology professor is set to teach in the fall at the college, but is now unsure whether or not she will be able to — she was planning on enrolling her son in the ELC.
“My son goes part-day, so the plan was to drop him off, go teach my two classes and come pick him up,” Holmstrom said.
Bucks County Community College’s Early Learning Center is set to shut down after summer camp sessions in early August, citing financial challenges facing the institution. The ELC has provided child care services at the college since 1973.
A difficult choice
College President Patrick M. Jones shared the closure news with parents in an email on June 17.
“This was not an easy decision,” Jones wrote. “The ELC has offered quality programs, and our staff are dedicated professionals who do a wonderful job.”
The ELC had operated with large annual deficits for years, according to Jones.
Bucks County Community College weighed increasing class size — from the current program cap of 24 — and raising tuition. However, due to the small facility size of the ELC, with a staff of only five teachers, enrollment could not be increased to meet the deficit and raising tuition to the level needed to close the budget gap would make the service unaffordable.
At a June 4 Bucks County Board of Trustees meeting, the board voted unanimously in favor of giving Jones a $30,000 “performance bonus.”
President of the Bucks County Community College Federation of Teachers John Sheridan said that although he does not know the exact deficit of the ELC, the decision to shut the center down meant it was losing a “considerable amount.”
“I did have a conversation with the president, he was not happy about having to do it,” Sheridan said. “He told me it was one of the hardest things he’s had to do.”
Left without options
The decision to close ELC is already affecting parents, months before the center is set to shutter.
Lisa LaJevic’s oldest daughter recently graduated from the ELC and she was planning on enrolling her youngest in January, once she met the program’s two-year-old age requirement. She said she was in shock reading about the planned closure.
“We were devastated when we got [the email],” LaJevic said. “It came out of nowhere, we had no idea this was coming.”
Accessibility was an important aspect of the center to LaJevic. The ELC was always flexible with her schedule and could accommodate her where other childcare centers would not.
The five day tuition for full days at the ELC was $250, less than half of the average weekly cost of a summer day camp in Pennsylvania.
“ELC was affordable for community members, in my opinion,” LaJevic said. “So the fact that it’s no longer a possibility, we’re just frantically looking around.”
Lack of communication
Lauren McGrath had planned on sending her daughter to the ELC in the fall. She said that the two months’ notice families have been given to find new childcare facilities is “outrageous.”
She and her husband have been budgeting for their children, with tuition costs and childcare included. She said this last-minute change is going to cost the family.
“It’s almost impossible that I’m going to find a place that fits into the budget with no notice,” McGrath said. “But I don’t really have a choice.”
From a personal perspective, McGrath said she feels horrible not just for the parents, but for the teachers at the ELC.
“These teachers that were running the school were wonderful teachers,” McGrath said. “Truly they were treasures.”
Informed by her experience in the corporate world in finance operations and transformations, McGrath was “baffled” by the behavior of Jones. His handling of this situation has led her to question whether he is capable of running a company, let alone a school.
“It’s unheard of to make a decision that impacts so many employees and without having any real thought or consideration for the actual communication plan,” McGrath said.
No heads up
On June 17, Holmstrom picked up her son from the ELC. She came home to a 4 p.m. email that said the childcare center would no longer be operating after this summer.
“The teachers told me that they didn’t even tell [them] until 4 p.m.,” Holmstrom said. “So the parents were notified as the teachers were notified.”
Neither the families nor staff were given advanced notice of the decision.
Both emails contained the information that the ELC was shutting down, but did not include information about next steps for affected families or transition support.
College staff were informed that the school is looking into the possibility of renting out the former childcare center to the Bucks County Intermediate Unit.
Without the on-campus childcare that ELC provided, Holmstrom is now weighing her options about returning to teach at Bucks in the fall.
“I honestly don’t know if it’s going to be an option,” Holmstrom said.
