When Bridgid and Tom Hood left Indian Township, a small reservation in Northern Maine, late last year, they were moving hundreds of miles from family and friends. But Bridgid, having begun her college career at the University of Maine, wanted to finish it in USM’s nursing program; Tom had his eye on the paramedicine program at Southern Maine Community College.
But the deciding factor in their move wasn’t their own alma matars, it was where they could send their two young children during the long schoolday.
So once daughter Aselis, 2, and son Molihk, 1, made it to the top of the waiting list for USM’s Child and Family Center last summer, the Hoods headed south.
“They love it. We love it!” says Bridgid.
“When we walk in there it’s like family. The teachers care about what’s going on in our lives, in our kids’ lives.”
“And it’s one of the ways we’ve been able to afford daycare,” she adds, referring to the highly subsidized rate.
Asleis and Molihk are among 88 children enrolled in USM’s childcare program, now in its 35th year. And the staff is quick to point out that it is more than just a couple of daycares, located at the University’s two main campuses. From infancy to age 5, the centers aim to provide a cutting-edge, age-appropriate educational experience.
In 1988 it became Maine’s first such program to earn accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young People.
And on Aug 14, due to the latest round of budget cuts, the centers are set to close down.
“Closing our child care centers is an excruciating decision,” President Botman wrote in a public announcement on Feb 4. “Unfortunately, this decision is one of many we’ll have to make as we grapple with steep financial challenges and work our way toward institutional sustainability.”
It wasn’t long before those words appeared on the President’s web site that the 24-person staff was quietly informed. They’d been bracing for bad news since the University announced a budget gap of $2.7 million last semester, followed by increasingly dire forecasts from the UMaine system.
Yet when the final word arrived, the effect was jarring.
“I understand it’s an economic process and things have to be cut,” says Jen Dean, who has been involved in the centers as a parent, teacher and member of the office staff. “But the way it’s been handled – I’m appalled, actually.”
“We have questions and concerns that were never discussed and never answered,” she added.
When the University recently cut it’s Lifeline wellness program, a group of anxious parents pre-emptively rallied at Woodbury Campus Center, attracting local TV crews and urging a letter-writing campaign to help prevent the same fate from befalling the Child and Family Centers.
But many felt it was too late even then, despite Vice President Craig Hutchinson’s assurances that Botman would wait a week to 10 days to make the call and take their concerns into consideration. Six days later, the decision was handed down.
“We’ve had plenty of parents approach us that if this place closes, they won’t continue to take classes here,” says Dean.
“Obviously, some people are angry right now, but I feel like there was not enough research done before the decision was made.”
One person who has been doing extensive research is Bruce Thompson, associate professor of Psychology. He and his students have used the facilities for years, for a variety of research projects on the cognitive development of young children.
“The child and family services program serves as a defacto lab school,” says Thompson. “Which is to say, it’s a branch of the academic program.”
Hutchinson, the primary channel between the President’s office and the centers, expressed some awareness of the academic link.
“I know there’s a research function,” Hutchinson said. “Whatever it is, I’m certainly willing to talk with them about alternatives. I suspect at this point, if they’re dependent on a childcare center, there are others in the area.”
But Thompson says he can’t envision a for-profit variation that could provide many of the same benefits, such as a controlled environment, wired for sound, with a specially trained staff and educators.
He says that portions of the linguistics, sociology, and nursing programs will face the same difficulty, and that a substantial amount of grant money has depended on having the on-campus site.
“We have students that we know became eligible for fairly high-tier research positions at Maine Medical Center, students getting into high-quality Ph.D and masters programs, who largely made those critical career leaps because they had the opportunity to do direct, hands-on research at these centers,” says Thompson.
He and Hutchinson do agree that the prospects of the President reversing her decision are slim, though Thompson is drafting a letter to her office to highlights what he calls the “hidden, long-term costs” of USM losing the centers.
In an email to the Free Press, Botman asserted that the decision was carefully considered, and there is no going back.
“Let me be clear,” she writes, “USM is definitely out of the child care business. If indeed our child care program were to operate after Aug 14, it would do so independently.”
That’s one of the options being explored by parents and staff, who are now meeting and planning to do whatever they can to preserve the current personnel and structure of the program – whether it means lobbying to restore the University’s $400,000 subsidy, or the daunting task of finding new funding sources.
The University would not confirm whether it will entertain bids from commercial childcare enterprises, though it acknowledges some have expressed interest in the facility.
“Are our parents going to continue to fight for keeping child care at USM?” writes Lori Moses, director of the Centers. ” You can bet on it! There are many impassioned parents who are petitioning, writing letters to legislators… and the Governor in order to keep child care at USM.”
And while Bridgid Hood’s family is one of many who don’t know what effect the closing could have on their lives, the danger alone has had a pretty obvious one.
“We didn’t really know many of the other parents before this,” she says at their first planning meeting, several days after the announcement, her daughter running circles around her.
“Now, we’re all kind of coming together.”