The Ministry of Education suddenly closed five daycare centres last month, denounced poor enrollment. The decision had to be reversed in the face of massive backlash from parents and officials.
The city has reached a lease agreement to keep the city-funded centre open for another year, but the long-term future for the center and its 300 children is still in the air.
“This temporary extension provides some relief, but does not address any major issues that led to the situation in the first place,” Chairman Rita Joseph said Thursday during city council oversight.
Angry parents and daycare administrators have accused the DOE of “running jokes” for a sudden closure and conversion at Nuestros Niños in Williamsburg. All my kids in South Jamaica. Bushwick Family Centre in Grand Street Village. Friends of Crown Heights and Fort Green Council.
“The DOE failed to conduct the most basic investigation into fraudulent reports of registered numbers in the database,” Mother Stephanie Garcia testified at the hearing. “Instead, they chose to ban more than 150 families and 80 staff.
“At this point, I'm kidding. How can you trust an agency that's confused about this to make the best decision for our kids?” Garcia said.
Nuestros Niños administrator Ingrid Matias Chungata shouted at the point during the hearing, explaining the stress she had been having since the sudden closure.
“Within 24 hours, the family had been notified before being sent to register their children in the next grade on the school portal, so we blinded the news that the lease would not be renewed,” Chonggata said. Ta. “We don't even consider conversations, legitimate procedures, or children, family or staff.”
Simone Hawkins, deputy prime minister for early childhood education at New York City public schools, has confirmed that DOE officials will use the number of enrollments from the previous year to make decisions.
“We looked at the last few years and it didn't reach the standard of full registration of 95%,” Hawkins said.
However, she mainly accused the potential closure of rents of too much.
“Our decisions were made primarily by looking at leases that have already expired or are set to expire from time to time,” Hawkins said. “These five sites are subject to it based on termination.
“The exception is that these providers are not the norms that take up city-owned space,” Hawkins added.
Hawkins said council members reached out to them with ideas for moving the centre in a nearby vacant space.
During the hearing, Joseph also dug up the reason the city was delayed by millions of dollars in payments to the childcare center, as was first reported. Gossamist.
Chungata said the center she runs burned 52 years of savings to compensate for DOE's slow payment payment process.
“It's like giving New York City a free loan,” Chonggata said.
Hawkins has condemned late payments in a switchover to the new payment processing system.
“We are now trying to release a new system that not only improves the turnaround time of payments, but also allows providers to see where they are in the queue,” Hawkins said.
In his opening statement, Joseph said he would like to see more transparency from the DOE.
“The future of early childhood education should not be decided behind closed doors,” Joseph said.
