Bucks County Community College to Close Their Early Learning Center, Parents Speak Out

On Wednesday Bucks County Community College announced it will be closing its Early Learning Center (ELC) due to financial reasons in early August, the college president and CEO said in an email to parents, “shocking” them with the announcement.

The Early Learning Center, located on the Newtown Campus, since 1973 has provided a preschool program for the education and care of young children, ages 2-5 years old, of BCCC students, staff, and faculty. The college  expanded the program to the community at large in 2018.

*****Part-time faculty member in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department Jessica Holmstrom, 41 who is also a realtor, had planned to enroll her toddler son in ELC next fall.  She said she was “stunned” when she learned the ELC would be closing.

“Do you know how how difficult it is to find quality child care that you can trust,” she said in exasperation,  “and on short notice?”

Holmstrom, because she is so “passionate” about this issue, posted a petition Sunday night on Change.Org 

It has garnered just under 200 supporters since going live late Sunday evening at publication time.

“At the bare minimum we would like to have the school open for the upcoming school year while allowing the parents the opportunity to fundraise, contribute more financially (tuition increases were not offered), and any other help we can give to try and save the school,” Holmstrom suggests in the online petition.

BCCC Explains the Reason for Closing ELC

“After a careful analysis of the cost of operations, and considering available options, the College made the decision that we can no longer afford to operate the ELC, effective with the fall semester. The ELC will continue to operate through this summer, with the last program ending in early August, said college president and CEO Dr. Patrick Jones.

Jones said the ELC has operated with large annual deficits for many years and the College can no longer afford to absorb these costs.

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“We analyzed options, including increasing the number of children and raising tuition. Unfortunately, the small size of the facility, which only can accommodate 24 children, means we cannot increase enrollment to the scale that would eliminate the deficit, and increasing tuition to the amount necessary would make it unaffordable.”

A 2nd Working Mom Weighs in 

Lauren McGrath, also of Newtown, is a mother of three, works in finance, and understands what numbers crunching looks like. She also planned on having her two-year-old attend the ELC program this fall.

***Two of my children have already participated and said the announced closure is “heartbreaking” when thinking of the teachers and staff at the center.

Those feelings of heartbreak gave way to pointed criticism of the closure announcement and the way it was rolled out.

The way this was done was atrocious, she said.

Had they given us six months’ notice it would of certainly been more palatable.

Like Holmstrom, now she has to race around to find a suitable replacement and “that’s going to be next to impossible,” she said.

Both want to become part of the solution in terms of finding a way to keep the center open and are willing to pay double the tuition, help fundraise, speak to lawmakers to try and keep the center open.

“They didn’t even give a chance” to help come with potential solutions, Holmstrom said.

This isn’t Tesla, we’re talking about, its meant to serve the community, not be an income stream, McGrath deadpanned.

Costs, Financials, and a Bonus!?

According to the Commonwealth Data  for the Philadelphia region the median weekly costs for child care can exceed $660 to over $2,600/month, depending on the facility, making it the most expensive region in the state.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) suggests families spend no more than 7% of their income on childcare. In PA, center-based infant care typically consumes roughly 11% to 12% of a married couple’s median household income, and upwards of 40% for single-parent families, according to a Commonwealth Foundation report.

For both women the cost is not an issue, they’re willing to pay. However, they each said, because numbers were not actually included, they would like to see how the center was operating with annual deficits.

“Let’s see the financials,” they said.

Holmstrom has been an adjunct at the college for 13 years and realizes speaking out could potentially harm her career in academia.

This is about the care and education of my children. The ELC program, its staff and what it offers is worth fighting for, she said.

She said, after being gobsmacked by the closing announcement, she tried to make some sense out of what parents were being told; this program is too costly to run, and discovered that the school’s board of directors at the June 4th meeting, approved a contract extension and $30,000.00 bonus to be given to Jones.

McGrath said, from her perspective giving Jones a bonus is none of her business.

At Bucks, we are making strategic decisions now to properly manage our resources in order to avoid having to make more extreme decisions later. These decisions are not easy, and we do not make them lightly, Jones said.