#reopenclc Reconsider the PERMANENT closing of the Children’s Learning Center

CLC has been an essential part of the lives of the working parents who have depended upon it for excellent child care for their young children. Closing the center will put a very serious burden on them and will take away a great learning opportunity for the children. HCC should reconsider this and try to keep the center open.

Learning in person is so important to help young minds to develop. Please reconsider reopening this program!

The learning opportunities offered by this center enhances HCC's community value. There are so many people impacted by this decision, many of whom would be willing to offer their help to keep this center open and sustainable.

Please reconsider opening as I know there are large number of single parents out there that need as much help as they can get that your center can provide. We don't live in the society of the 70s, 80s, or 90s where parents can just sit kids in front of a TV and work or follow their educational goals or socialize. That wasn't right then and it wouldn't be right now. That is why places like yours need to be there so kids have a good, trustworthy, and educational environment while away from their parent(s) who need to be able to work to support them.

I have heard only good things about the Children’s Learning center and the staff. They provide structure and socialization but above that, the atmosphere is family friendly and its not easy to find a center you feel comfortable leaving your children at all day. I hope this center can be saved!

As a resident of the county I expect the best from our institutions. I believe cutting this program goes against that expectation.

They shouldn’t close because they help out Tremendously with the kids and teach them well

When we decided that it was time to enroll my son in daycare we were urged to look into daycare connected to community colleges. When my husband was younger he attended one and his grandparents remembered the joy in knowing that their child was close by and well taken care of. While I am not a student nor do I work at the school, I work nearby and when I toured the center I was sold. The teachers were warm and welcoming and many had been there for years! There were lots of opportunities for playing and learning was woven in and never forced. When my son had to have a speech-language pathologist come work with him the CLC make is smooth and easy and would cheer on his achievements. My son has grown so much in his time there and when we got the unexpected news of the closure, I was devastated. I had in my head assumed that come September we would have figured out a way to get the kids together. We had been practice mask-wearing with our almost 4 year old to prepare him for going back. Things are hard not but not impossible.

Please keep the school open.

Please open for my nephew

CLC is a major part in the life of both of my young daughters. they have learned so much there.....and we feel as though staff are extended family. My family was devastated with the thought of the program closing.

As a pediatrician I was trained to promote and practice decisions in the best Interests of children. As a parent, the decisions on where to send my children to continue supporting decisions that were in their best interests weighed heavily on where I placed my four-year-old for pre kindergarten instruction. As I searched the community for the proper pre-K, I stumbled luckily upon the CLC. This center not only embodied the mission of Howard Community College but embodied what I looked for in total care of child health. Not only has my 5 year old been able to thrive in a diverse, supportive, loving and protective environment but she has developed the necessary skills and social awareness needed to advance to kindergarten. Despite my best efforts to support these teachings at home, I know that I would not have been successful without the Children's Learning Center. Laurie Moran and the rest of the teachers and staff helped to shape my 5 year old into the curious, active, intelligent little girl that she is and I cannot imagine this community without that to offer other children. This community will not be complete without this Center and the health and well-being of future HCC students will be effected should closure be permanent. Keeping the center open means keeping children healthy, body and mind. Losing this option will surely impact the community's support of the college.

I brought my students to observe the children every semester since the Children’s Learning Center was opened. I hope something can bring it back.

My daughter is a student at HCC in the early childhood special education program and this center with access to children had been invaluable in her education.

While we aren't a member of this community anymore, it was imperative to or family for the first few years of our daughter's life. The community, teachers, and staff we're invaluable. We moved away and we're remised to find another daycare center - which just isn't the same as the CLC. The members of this community have become lifelong friends and we're sad to see it end. As a former faculty member of HCC, I know the value it brought to members of that community as well.

CLC was the best experience for my daughter for her 3 and 4 year old years and for me as her parent. The teachers, the leadership and the facility were all working together for the growth and development of children. The developmentally appropriate practices fostered my daughter's growth and cemented her views of diversity as strength. This is a tremendous loss for Howard County. As a single mother, struggling to raise her child, CLC was the place where I did not have to worry. As a teacher with 30 years experience working with young students with HCPSS, I can speak to the necessity of quality early learning experiences. Without CLC, so many single mothers who were planning to go to HCC to further their education and create financial independence for themselves, will not have this opportunity with the closing of CLC.

please don't close they have been a staple in the community to help families for so long PLEASE DONT CLOSE THIS CENTER

As a former work study student at the CLC the permanent closure of a service that provided so much to the HCC community on multiple levels is heartbreaking. Child care centers are sorely needed at this point, especially for students in our community who rely on child care to work and attend classes.

We need more child care in this country not less! This is a valuable center that helps people who work at HCC and students. It's wrong to close it now without any consultation with the community it impacts.

I was 17 years old when I randomly picked the CLC to apply to. I just needed something part time at the college that I was attending. I had no idea how this place, these families, and the teachers would change the entire trajectory of my life. This school changed my major, these teachers and the administration taught me how fullfiling their occupation is, the families shared with me the honest triumphs and struggles of real families. I can not fathom the kind of person I would have been without the CLC and it deserves to stay open so that it can influence some other self-absorbed 17 year old girl to be the best version of herself.