After nearly a two hour meeting, the Board of Trustees voted Oct. 21 to ultimately close the Child Development Center effective June 30, 2014.

The CDC eluded closure last January by the board in favor of a method to strengthen enrollment.

The decision came as a surprise to faculty members and staff despite the improvements made by the center.

“We were very surprised and very, very disappointed,” Janet Young, associate professor of childhood education, said. “We were stunned and shocked and disappointed that all of the things that have been done and all of the improvements, the increased enrollments and it didn’t count.”

According to a report sent from Francisco Arce, vice president of academic affairs at EC, to Tom Fallo, president of EC, the recommendation for closure of the Child Development Center is based on a history of low enrollment beginning with fiscal year 2008/2009.

As the enrollment numbers declined, the district general fund transferred money to cover the annual budget deficit in the CDC. The amount of revenue allocated from the district general fund to cover the CDC budget deficit has steadily increased since the 2008/09 fiscal year. For fiscal year 2013/14, the district general fund is subsidizing the CDC budget deficit by $257,750, according to the report.

The members of the CDC are not disputing that the center had been operating at a deficit for many years. However, they believe they should have been allowed to continue because of the progress made under the center’s new direction.

“We understand that we’re in a fiscal crisis and that
numbers were terrible; from a strictly number standpoint, we’re not disputing that at all,” Young said. “We were told by Dr. Arce that when they came away from that board meeting, it wasn’t to give us a year to try to turn the center around, it was a year to close the center down.”

The center has been operating under new direction by the interim director, Jennifer Montgomery, since July 1 and since has shown improvement in enrollment.

“We heard that our director was to get in there to see what she can do, and bring them back a report in November and we will reassess,” Young said.

According to a recovery report made by Montgomery, the enrollment for the center has increased from 14 students to 58 students in three months.

However, the Board of Trustees made their decision based on the ongoing problems.
“She’s [Montgomery] doing a great job, but she just started and this issue has been going on since January,” Ken Brown, vice president of the board of trustees, said. “There’s no doubt that policies have been made. Unfortunately, it has not translated in more clients and more money.”

EC students and staff with children will be forced to remove their children from the center.

“With the decision to close in June, parents will clearly begin to probably pull their children out and start looking for a new place,” Christina Gold, history professor and academic senate president, said. “Parents don’t want to enroll their child in a place that will being closing in a couple of months so they’ll limp along until they can close.”

According to the recovery report, 41 percent of children enrolled in the center are children of students or staff members.

With the closing of the CDC, childhood education majors will have to find other programs that they can observe children and organize their studies.

“Our childhood education students deserve to conduct their observation and their assignments and their student teaching with real children in a model program at a site at our school,” Young said. “They’re not going to have that opportunity any longer. We don’t know where we’re going to send our students.”