Q&A
Lease negotiations and closure plans for Nuestros Ninos
1:43:12
ยท
70 sec
Council Member Krishnan questions DOE officials about the short notice given to Nuestros Ninos regarding planned closure and the current status of lease negotiations.
- Nuestros Ninos was notified of planned closure 24-48 hours before applications opened
- Krishnan expresses shock at the short notice given to such an essential center
- Questions raised about steps taken to ensure all seats were filled before deciding on closure
- Current lease negotiations aim to extend the center's operation until the end of the 2025-2026 school year
Shekar Krishnan
1:43:12
So my questions were one, is it true that they were notified of the planned closure of the site just a day or twenty four hours before the applications went online earlier this year?
Simone Hawkins
1:43:25
And so we notified the providers around twenty four to forty eight hours prior to the opening of the application in January, correct?
Shekar Krishnan
1:43:33
And that's what I mean, but that to me is shocking.
1:43:36
For center that is so essential, providing services for families for more than fifty years, low income families in Williamsburg that are being displaced from their own community, to give them twenty four hours of notice of closure for an essential care center is really shocking to me.
1:43:51
And so one question I have is, and this goes to the approach in how we're looking at early child education.
1:43:56
One question I have is before decision was made to notify them of closure, knowing the statistics, knowing how important this day care center is to its community, what steps were taken by the city to work with them to make sure all their seats were filled, to make sure there was as much marketing and outreach done as possible to this high needs community because the data shows a very different perspective of how important a childcare center like North Los Ninos is.