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**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
January 2, 2008
Contact: Gia Storms
212.669.4813; 917.626.6757
Release #: 075-2007
Public Advocate Gotbaum Calls on ACS to Keep Day Care Centers Open
-Gotbaum calls for an immediate moratorium on center closings, interim sponsor to keep Lucille Murray open-
BRONX – Public Advocate Gotbaum today called on the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to take immediate action and appoint an interim sponsor to save one of the largest Bronx day care centers, Lucille Murray, from closing next week. ACS abruptly announced it would be closing the facility on January 11 without consulting the community or parents with children enrolled at the center. The Public Advocate was joined by representatives from the labor union DC 1707, as well as employees and families of Lucille Murray.
In late November, ACS notified the center sponsoring board, the staff and the parents that it was terminating its child care contract at Lucille Murray Child Development Center on January 11th. Lucille Murray serves 253 pre-school and school-age children in Mott Haven, one of the poorest communities in the South Bronx. Lucille Murray is surrounded by five NYCHA projects comprised of over 6,000 households.
Public Advocate Gotbaum said, “ACS has a responsibility to these children, their parents and the larger community. By closing this center, ACS is showing a blatant disregard for the people who depend on its services. Closing this center needlessly puts hundreds of families in a bind and may put children at risk as parents scramble to find other childcare options. ACS must take all measures necessary to secure a new interim sponsoring board and keep Lucille Murray open. These parents and children depend on it.”
Senator José M. Serrano said, “The city is removing essential services for the very people who need them most. Many of my constituents in the South Bronx already find themselves on the wrong side of disparities in healthcare, income and housing. To close the Lucille Murray center would severely increase the burdens on our community. The city must be mindful of this and reverse its decision."
Raglan George Jr., Executive Director of District Council 1707 said, “Lucille Murray Child Development Center is the sixteenth child care center to be closed in minority neighborhoods of need since January 2004. Lucille Murray is located in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx which has the greatest amount of poverty and lowest school performance in New York City. Consistent with the Mayor’s initiatives to reduce school failure, this center needs to be transferred to another sponsoring board that will keep it operating and providing quality pre-school education. We must not allow city day centers providing educational and support services for young children to be closed.”
Nessa Coulibaly, a parent who takes her five-year-old child to Lucille Murray everyday said, “I work every day and this thing is very hard for me. I don’t know what to do if it closes. If I can’t go to work, how can I feed my kids? When it comes to them, they come first. Now, I have trouble closing my eyes at night.”
Bronx Community Board # 1 said, “Our Community Board is extremely opposed to the actions of ACS to close this important community resource center. The center presently serves pre-school and school age children in Mott Haven one of the poorest community districts in the South Bronx. We ask that ACS immediately appoint another community service provider to manage and operate the Lucille Murray Child Development Center and work with all parties to keep its doors open.”
Lucille Murray will be the fourth day care center ACS has closed in Council District 17 in the Bronx, following Marcus Garvey, Mott Haven and Frank Whelan, for a total loss of over 400 child care slots in this high-need community. There are not enough openings in the ACS centers in the area to take in all the Lucille Murray children, which means many of the parents will have to place their children in makeshift home-based care or stop working.
Despite the history of financial mismanagement at Lucille Murray, ACS has never acted to transfer the center to another sponsoring board, as they have in most similar cases in the past. This will be the first administration in NYC history to close a child care center on the basis of “financial improprieties,” instead of transferring the center to another responsible sponsoring board, so that the children and their working parents would not be penalized.
Public Advocate Gotbaum also opposes the closing of the Children’s Liberation Day Care Center, serving 87 pre-school children ages two through five in the East Village, and the only city-funded day care center between 14th Street and Houston from Fifth Avenue to Avenue C. ACS is terminating its contract with the center January 4th for the reason that the center will be “closed for renovation,” although no date has been set for renovations to start and none of the other tenants have been told to move.
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