Lawrence McCarthy arrived home on June 17, not knowing he had just left his last shift at American University’s Child Development Center. McCarthy said he had been working at the center for 35 years; 33 years as a full-time teacher, and the following two years part-time a few mornings a week. But that ended when AU shut down the center.
“I was shocked,” McCarthy said. “I was completely unprepared for it. I mean, tears welled up. I mean, it’s been a big part of my life.”
The news of the Child Development Center’s closing came in the form of an email from Chief Financial Officer Bronté Burleigh-Jones on June 17 that stated the center would close its doors on Aug. 30 because of declining enrollment, staffing challenges and an annual deficit in the center during the last five years of its operation.
Some former center employees have since criticized AU for notifying center staff members alongside the rest of the university community. They’ve also remembered staffing and financial difficulties throughout the center’s operation. AU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, meanwhile, published a statement which offers ways to reopen the center, saying the closure could’ve been avoided.
That report from AAUP, a non-profit membership of faculty and other academic professors, also said AU’s reported deficit for the center was $150,000.
Former Center Director Elizabeth Root did not respond to an interview request regarding the center’s deficit.
Despite being addressed to the university community, the email was also how the center staff, students and families found out, McCarthy said. While he wasn’t physically at the center at the time, McCarthy said he heard a lot of shock, anger and disbelief from staff and parents.
“[There was] a lot of the sort of reaction of, ‘I can’t believe they’d just do this without involving us in any discussions or problem solving or anything like that,’” McCarthy said. “It’s just a done deal.”
In the email, Burleigh-Jones said the center’s closing was a difficult decision but necessary and appropriate.
“Unfortunately, we have reached a point where the CDC’s extensive and long-standing operating challenges make continuing operations unsustainable,” Burleigh-Jones said in the email.
To support families with enrolled children, Burleigh-Jones said the university will subsidize the center’s families who enroll their children at Bright Horizons, AU’s backup care provider, with a year of tuition. She said Bright Horizons has guaranteed space available for all current center students.
With more than 20 Bright Horizons locations within 15 miles of AU, four of them being inside a 1.5 mile radius, such an arrangement would “provide flexibility to parents in choosing the best center for their families,” according to the email.
The center’s challenges
Louise Van Schaak, a former teacher in the Green Room, one of the center’s two classrooms, said the center was facing problems with coverage day-to-day, and staff sometimes had to put the two rooms together when there wasn’t enough staff.
“Ideally, you would have the classes operate separately. They were different environments, different ages,” Van Schaak said. “And although it’s nice to spend time together, it was a challenge when there wasn’t enough coverage.”
Kera Ray, a senior who previously worked at the center, worked in the Green Room with Van Schaak. She said combining the classrooms was chaotic.
Ray said the Green Room taught children ages 3 to 5, while the neighboring Orange Room taught 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds. She said when even one teacher was missing from one of the rooms, it was hard to cover both.
“They both had different schedules, different routines, and it just usually didn’t work out,” Ray said.
In the statement, Burleigh-Jones attributed staffing challenges to a shortage of qualified childcare teachers in the region, saying the university was struggling to fill vacant positions.
Also cited in the email was enrollment in the center, which Burleigh-Jones said averaged around 30 students before the COVID-19 pandemic. After in-person operations at the center resumed following the pandemic, enrollment peaked lower, at 20. At the time of the email, Burleigh-Jones said 18 students were enrolled in the center.
Burleigh-Jones said the growth of remote and hybrid jobs meant families who would potentially enroll children at the center were increasingly looking for “flexible offerings and part-time care options.”
Mentioned last was an annual deficit Burleigh-Jones called substantial, and was present over the last four years of the center’s operation.
Community Reactions
Ray didn’t see the email from Burleigh-Jones when it was first sent out. Instead, she learned the center was closing through @stoolamerican, an Instagram account that posts memes and news about the university, reposting the email.
“I texted the teachers I had been working closely with right away, to be like, ‘What’s going on?’” Ray said.
Ray remembered thinking afterward that the university’s decision was hastily-made, giving the center’s parents little time to find other daycare options. She said daycares have waitlists in the neighborhoods surrounding AU.
“There really wasn’t much information being given to the parents, which I think was probably not the best move, because, again, it’s very hard to get your kids into daycare in this area,” Ray said.
Van Schaak said she felt sad and disappointed at the announcement, especially for the families.
“It was a really lovely setup for them and a really nice community, and I know how hard it is for parents to find childcare that they believe in and feel comfortable with,” Van Schaak said. “And it was affordable, and so having that taken away from them was very devastating.”
The move has been continually criticized by the university’s AAUP chapter. In their statement, released two days after AU’s announcement, the chapter said the center’s value “far surpasses a simple cost-benefit analysis.”
“Closing the CDC with two months’ notice is not only a difficult and surprising burden for parents and long-term teachers; it is a missed opportunity to turn what has been a highly successful but little-known program into an even greater recruitment, retention, and education asset for AU,” the AAUP statement said.
Over 300 people in the AU and center communities, including graduate students, alumni staff and former and current faculty, signed the statement, according to a database published by the chapter. Of the 327 signatures, 106 were former or current center parents, as of Nov. 3.
The statement said closing the center would make AU less appealing to prospective and current faculty, staff and students and would create equity concerns for those groups. The closure added to disruption enrolled students were already facing, the statement said.
“We ask that the University consider keeping the center open to allow efforts to drive up enrollment with the participation and advice of parents and AU community members,” the AAUP statement read.
According to the statement, the cost of subsidizing currently-enrolled parents’ childcare for a year would potentially be around the equivalent of keeping the center open. The chapter also said AU hasn’t estimated the cost of alternative childcare benefits for employees who no longer have the center, and keeping the center open would allow the university to avoid potential future financial losses.
Though acknowledging the staffing and financial challenges, the chapter said it does not believe the center’s reported deficit or the need to add eight students to the center’s enrollment are impossible challenges to overcome.
McCarthy said this is not the first time the center had faced financial issues, but the only time the university had made a decision without the center community’s input.
“Three times in my tenure there, we have faced major financial issues, and each time the University approached the center director, they involved the Center staff, they involved the parents and they involved the AU community,” McCarthy said.
This time, AU administrators didn’t talk to any of those people, McCarthy said.
John Bracht, a biology professor at AU and president of the university’s AAUP chapter, said the university did consult with the faculty senate about wanting to close the center, but he reiterated that they did not consult the parents. He said the parents are the key stakeholder group, and although a decision was made, the university should still be listening to the parents.
Bracht said there is a working group dedicated to pressuring the administration to reopen the center, and meetings between the two parties resulted in verbal agreements in favor of reopening.
However, he said, there are questions about the university’s commitment to such an idea.
“We see it as a DEI issue, right?” Bracht said. “We see it as an academic freedom issue. And we see it as a shared governance issue, that the decisions made in this case were just, top down, ignoring the input of faculty.”
AAUP’s statement also emphasizes community involvement. In the statement, the chapter asked AU to create a council of faculty and parents in order to govern the center, increase enrollment from AU and the surrounding community and provide staffing and additional support. The community’s expertise in marketing and education, among other fields, would be beneficial to the center if it was to reopen, the chapter said.
It’s unclear if administrators have discussed the future of the center. Elizabeth Deal, AU assistant vice president and deputy chief communications officer, referred AWOL to the initial announcement.
“In June, we shared a message with the community explaining our rationale for this complex decision,” Deal said. “We have no additional comments at this time.”
With no reopening for the center in sight, the former staff of the center are entering new chapters in their lives.
McCarthy, now fully retired, said he believes closing the center was not the only option available.
“[Burleigh-Jones] hinted at this whole change in paradigm, and yet, in the academic world, American University, in the last couple of years, has started a degree program in early childhood education,” McCarthy said. “And that school could definitely use an on-campus site for a lot of its lab work, its observational work, its student training.”
Ray left the center a few months prior to the closing announcement due to issues with her federal work-study, but was able to find a new position with the front desk in the university’s human resources department, where she is today. She said she hopes one day the university will be able to reopen the center.
“It was just really unfortunate how it all ended,” she said.
Van Schaak is now director of another early childhood center, but says she reflects on the center daily.
“I always said it was like a hidden gem,” Van Schaak said. “What we were able to do there, just because of its size, because of its location, and oh my gosh, the campus was amazing to have. I miss a lot of the really beautiful aspects of that school.”
This article was originally published in Issue 35 of AWOL’s magazine on November 19, 2024. You can see the rest of the issue here.
