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Search Menu Login Reset Password Home Weather Archive Sign Up for Alerts Full Site Close Menu Four-year-old Zeba Traore finds a different perspective of the Schneider Children's Center. Daily Tidings / File photo SERVED SOU STUDENTS Schneider Children's Center set to close By By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings April 24, 2015 - 5:15 PM Barring an 11th-hour plot twist, customers of the Schneider Children’s Center will have to find another place to care for their children beginning June 13. The Childcare Center in the school’s Old Mill Village student family housing complex off Quincy Street served Southern Oregon University students almost exclusively for the first 27 years of its existence before opening its doors to the general public in September in an effort to compete with local childcare providers. It will be closing for good a day before the school’s commencement celebration. Currently, the Children’s Center cares for 55 children from 48 families, according to SCC director Kathy Spain. The move, which comes a year after the Associated Students of Southern Oregon University voted to de-fund the Children’s Center, was finalized by SOU President Roy Saigo during a cabinet meeting Monday. The closing was recommended by Mark Denney, SOU’s associate vice president of budget and planning, who said that the president had no other choice. “The president’s decision was a final decision, but I spoke with him today and he said that if a viable plan was brought forward the university would hear it,” Denney said. “Most likely, it would require a large donation.” Saigo could not be reached for comment. Denney added that he has tentatively scheduled a town hall-type meeting for Tuesday in the Stevenson Union building, at which he plans to “take them through, step by step, the last 16 months and articulate in great detail all the options we’ve explored and why each one did not pan out.” The decision to close the Children’s Center was announced during an ASSOU senate meeting Tuesday night. About 35 SCC customers showed up, many with children in tow, and took turns asking the 11 student senators on hand to explain the move. Candy Boerwinkle, a 35-year-old mother of five, including two that currently spend several days a week at the Children’s Center, said that the decision was shocking and that the atmosphere during the meeting was “emotionally charged.” “This is something that’s very close to our hearts, and there’s no place like (the Children’s Center) in Ashland,” said Boerwinkle. “It’s an exceptional, outstanding program, but we haven’t given up. We’re writing to our representatives, we’re petitioning the ASSOU, and at the meeting a few of the (student senators) stood up and said that we didn’t know this was going on and we’re going to advocate for you.” Boerwinkle said she tried to contact Saigo but was only able to do so by email until Friday morning, when she caught Saigo and provost Susan Walsh as they were walking into a building on campus. In an email to the Tidings, Boerwinkle described Saigo as “sympathetic to the parents and the struggles of childcare. He related to me his own experience when his children were young in difficulties with finding care. He even hugged me!” Categorized as an auxiliary program, the Children’s Center had been funded by student fees until the ASSOU voted last year to stop that funding beginning in the 2014-15 academic year and instead offer students in need of childcare a $400-per-month subsidy. The hope was that the Children’s Center would become self-sufficient and cover its expenses by increasing its client base, but when that didn’t happen Denney said it was time to close it down and give its staff and customers time to adjust. Denney added that the Children’s Center is “an incredible place”, but that its exceptional offerings — it employs 10 full-time staff members, was awarded a Farm to Preschool Grant and provides free meals — came at a cost. The budget deficit, he estimated, was between $150,000 and $170,000 annually. The school hosted a series of meetings last spring to brainstorm solutions, but cost-cutting measures that included downsizing the staff were rejected, Denney said. “The few that did attend felt that to make the center the most cost effective would have taken away from what SCC is,” he said. “They said ‘No, we want to keep that.’ And we said, ‘OK, rates are going to have to increase significantly to try to cover that.’” The SCC’s rates range from $270 a month for preschool care two days a week to $1,440 a month for an infant or toddler who requires all-day, five-days-a-week care. “It just seems like they were setting us up to fail, and then said, ‘See, it failed,’” Boerwinkle said. Tara Roberts, a 33-year-old single mother of two, said she’s devastated that the Children’s Center will no longer be an option. “As a single mother, there’s a lot missing in my kids’ lives,” she said, “and I feel like the Schneider Children’s Center has made up for so much with stability, good quality food and love. They have a great staff.” Now, she’s not sure what she’s going to do. There are a few day care possibilities for her 3-year-old, but finding care for her 1-year-old is more complicated, and the SOU subsidy is only good at providers which have been licensed by the state, further limiting her options. “I feel it’s an accessibility issue,” Roberts said. “Childcare, transportation and housing – those are the barriers you face to getting an education when you’re in this situation.” Joe Zavala can be reached at 541-821-0829 or [email protected] . Fact Box What do you think? Have an opinion on this issue? Send a letter to the editor at www.dailytidings.com/sendletter . 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