On Tuesday morning, students addressed their concerns about KCK Community College closing its child care center.
The Board of Trustees opened the floor to students during their meeting.
Nestor Olmo, a KCKCC student and parent, became emotional as he explained his concerns.
"I don’t know what to do,” he said.
The closing was announced in March. KCKCC leaders say the center is closing after suffering financial losses.
“It's been a very difficult decision. It's something the board has been looking at for a very long period of time,” KCKCC Chief Financial Officer, Dr. Susan Lindahl said. “Enrollment had been declining to the point where we had a $1.8 million deficit and that was really a deciding factor in closing.”
For Olmo, who is 12 credit hours away from graduating, he said hearing the news was devastating.
“I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do to be able to graduate. I'm essentially a semester away from graduating and it's going to set me back a year. Cause if I transfer to another school with day care facilities it'll take me a year to get me back to where I was to get my degree,” he said. “I'm essentially stuck and I have to compromise the quality of my daughter's daycare.”
For student and parent Julia Neel, she says she was in disbelief.
“I'm right now in a health professions program that is nontransferable,” she said. “So if I don't find the proper daycare I need nearby in Wyandotte County, I may have to switch schools and switch professions and I don't want to have to do that.”
Dr. Lindahl says right now, about 26 students of 5500 use the child care center.
“We hate to take any service away from our students and this is an auxiliary service and so we are helping in the transition with scholarship dollars for those students who are coming back in the fall,” Lindahl said.
She says the board is also working with the child care center to put together a list of daycare centers in the surrounding areas.
Early Education and Professional Development Specialist at the Family Conservancy in KCK, Marsha Wiard says right now this center is one of the very few quality child care centers in KCK.
“Our agency has worked with them for many many years so we know that they are invested in quality child care,” Wiard said. “And when you've got child care centers that have waiting lists of six months, a year and even more, you know some of these students are not even going to be able to find child care services that quickly.
Olmo says while the future is unknown, he says he will continue to provide a future for his daughter.
“This is my most precious thing in my life. This is who I'm doing this for...is my child. So I have to do whatever I have to,” Olmo said.
The center is set to close on May 31st.
KCK community college leaders say they are also assisting child care teachers in finding new employment opportunities.
Dr. Lindahl says the board is looking at possibly getting grants and developing a lab school that would be in partnership with the college’s early childhood education program.
