A downtown daycare center set to close as the federal agency that housed it dissolves received an olive branch — but no financial security — from the agency taking over its building.
Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh, in a letter to the parent board of directors, said the OCC is “prepared to enter into an agreement with the Small Savers [Child Development] Center to provide continued access to space for the child care facility after the transfer date.”
But the OCC has not offered Small Savers the financial sponsorship that the Office of Thrift Supervision provided for 25 years, causing parents to look elsewhere.
Spokesman Bryan Hubbard said the offer was likely to be for a year’s extension of space but could not comment on the attached fees.
Small Savers hosts 22 employees and 65 children in the basement of the Thrift office, scheduled to be absorbed mainly by the OCC by July 21 in accordance with an overhaul of federal financial agencies. The Dodd-Frank Act did not specify what would become of Small Savers, whose rent, utilities and maintenance fees are covered by the Thrift office.
Small Savers charges between $1,155 and $1,475 monthly, depending on the child’s age and whether a parent is a federal employee; nearby centers reported tuitions of $200 more.
Adina Renee Adler, vice president of the day care’s board of directors, said she was “thankful” that the center would not automatically close in July.
“The parents were certainly concerned, asking, ‘Should I start exploring other options for my children?’?” Adler said.
But Carrie Nelson, whose 2-year-old son attends Small Savers, said parents are “still worried because obviously there’s been no commitment made. [The OCC] is still stalling.”
Nelson has put her son on five waitlists.
“If [the OCC] drags their feet and uncertainty looms too long, it will force parents’ hands to go elsewhere, and the center might not make it for that reason alone,” she said.
Colleen McCarthy, director of private daycare Huckleberry Cheesecake, said, “The day that Small Savers parents were informed [of the closure], we got four or five phone calls.”
Waitlist status at Huckleberry Cheesecake costs $100 and lasts at least 12 months. Monthly tuition ranges from $1,335 to $1,770.
Small Savers is scheduled to plead its case to OCC senior staffers on Sept. 28.
Federal employees with young children founded Small Savers in 1986. About 55 percent of the kids come from families with at least one parent in the government.
