It’s asking the school to pause its decision to close the Children’s Center.
Frederick, Md (KM) Four local elected officials have sent a letter to the President and Board of Trustees at Frederick Community asking for a pause on any decision to close the school’s Children’s Center. They are Delegate Kris Fair, Senator Karen Lewis Young, County Council President Brad Young and Frederick City Council President Katie Nash.
All four held a listening session last week to hear from parents who will be impacted by the closure of the child care center. Fair said they had some questions. “The status of the financial situation of the children’s center; the intention of the center; the fact that many, many people reported that their education enrollment was connected to the opening of that center; the availability of child care,” he said.
The announcement in January, 2025, by FCC President Annesa Payne Cheek that the Carl and Norma Miller Children’s Center was closing on May 16th took many parents who had kids enrolled there by surprise. Fair says some parents were able to access the minutes of the Board of Trustees’ meeting in November where there was discussion about renovating the child care center. Fair says one thing a pause would do is give parents who have children enrolled at the center to make other arrangements. “That everything was kind of moving along like normal. So this letter on January 30th caught them off guard and they’ve been rushing around looking for new child care. So the one thing that it would do is give them additional time,”: he says.
A second reason to put a pause on closing the child care center would allow FCC to look at partnering with the community to keep the center open. “Partner with Frederick City Government and Frederick County Government, organizations like the YMCA and others to be able to investigate ‘okay, is there a way for us to shift to this plan that we can support this effort in either a different capacity or the same capacity, and still look at the very important work around workforce development that I think the President is focused on,'”: says Fair.
In the statement from FCC, President Cheek announced the repurposing of the child care center building into a workforce training center beginning in the fall of 2025.
Also, President Cheek said the children’s center has lost $1.3 million between fiscal years 2020 and 2024. :”We’re incorporating two-and-a-half years there of data where the center was essentially closed, unable to operate because of COVID,” says Fair.
He also says it’s uncertain if this letter will persuade FCC to reconsider its decision to close the center, but it’s important for citizens who are being affected by decisions made by colleges, government agencies or other organizations to have a chance to be heard. “Our job is to make sure that our residents of our community when they have a concern that those concerns are at least heard,”: says Fair.
“It doesn’t mean it changes the outcome,” he continues. “But we don’t get to make decisions and not listen to the people that we are impacting from those decisions.”
By Kevin McManus