Berkeley Carroll Child Care Center to Close
This news appeared on the Park Slope Parents list over the weekend: the Berkeley Carroll Child Care Center will close at the end of this academic year in Aug. 2009. Here’s more: Methodist Hospital owns the building and needs the space back to accommodate their own growth. Unfortunately, Berkeley Carroll was unable to find another…
This news appeared on the Park Slope Parents list over the weekend: the Berkeley Carroll Child Care Center will close at the end of this academic year in Aug. 2009. Here’s more:
Methodist Hospital owns the building and needs the space back to
accommodate their own growth. Unfortunately, Berkeley Carroll was unable to find another suitable space. We are all devastated and are trying to mobilize to get another year extension on the lease so that the families will have more time to transition to other options.Shortage of child care options, especially for children under 2 because of the strict physical requirements of the space, was already a problem in this neighborhood, so this is a real loss, not just to the families who currently attend, but to the whole neighborhood as well. The center is a truly wonderful place with loving teachers.
Folks seem pretty distraught over it and are hoping to foment a movement to salvage the center. Can anyone out there help?
Disgusting. The school knew it was closing the child care a long time ago according to one trustee. However they invited unsupecting families to sign up for a three year program. What a ripoff.
The day care center was helpful to blue-collar families because it opened early.
Please read tiptoe’s comment. I am glad someone knows the truth. What the hell are they hiding.
Cute picture. That’s all.
Wow such harsh words!!! Xander, Troll and Ppark..were you beaten as children?!! goodness.. so what if a mother works.. I agree with traditionalmod.. I have been in school since i was 3 and am very happy that my parents made that decision.
It’s not just about financial necessity. It’s so your kid doesn’t end up undersocialized, bored, and underdeveloped. I work at home and I totally intend to put my child in a pre-K program. I loved pre-school I was in as a kid. I have totally positive memories of it these decades later. We were a very traditional family and my mother was a stay-at-home mother. It was my family’s choice to put me in that program.
This is an outrage. A lack of daycare option for parents at an affordable price is a disgrace upon that short jewish mayor of ours.
It may be helpful for readers to have the Hospital perspective on this issue:
In 1999 an agreement was reached between New York Methodist Hospital (NYM) and the Berkeley Carroll School. The Hospital had decided to discontinue operating a childcare center but hoped to find a way to have the service remain available to parents in the community. NYM gave the School a five-year lease for 515 Sixth Street, which had been renovated to house the MHB Childcare Center and which had housed it since 1986. All furnishings and equipment in the building were donated to the School. Berkeley Carroll then began operating a childcare center in this space.
In 2003, when the five-year lease ended, the School asked for a one-year extension to provide more time to find a suitable space in which to move the Center. NYM granted the extension. This same request was made three more times. Each time, the Hospital granted the School a one-year extension. In September of 2008, the Hospital received a letter from the Berkeley Carroll School stating that the School intended to close the Childcare Center and return the space to the Hospital at the end of the 2008-09 academic year. There was no request for an additional extension.
Lyn S. Hill
Vice President for Communication
and External Affairs
Currently the DOH requires two forms of egress from the building to the sidewalk for EACH FLOOR that children will be on. This means that if you want to create two classrooms on two different floors of a building there needs to be 4 ways out. If you consider most buildings in PS being attached townhouses, this requirement excludes almost all the buildings in the Slope. This is one of the major reasons that there is a lack of childcare options in PS. I own an attached frame building that I want to use as a preschool. I was told by DOH that under and over the stoop access is not enough. I need to have two more doors with firewalls in between. Imagine how lovely that would look…and how much my neighbors would love me for that one!
I need an architect or engineer who is expert at negotiating article 47 of the health code. If you have any recommendations, please pass them along.
Too bad. The area definitely needs more daycare options.
And I find it hilarious how many insecure 20 somethings are still threatened by children.
I agree with Xander!!!
Ruska – You are the man of the house hold. Get a second job with health insurance and carry your family’s weight!
You are pethatic if you have to rely on your wifes income and insurance. BE A MAN AND TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR FAMILY’S WELL BEING!!!