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

They say you don’t realize the value of something until it is gone. Not with CLC, atleast for our family. We felt fortunate everyday to drop off our (soon to be butterfly) son for the past 4 years. As a parent I always thought our walk to his cubby must feel like a parade for him on most days with waves in the hallway culminating in the most enthusiastic greeting from his friends. And the pick up was just the opposite with having to drag him out past Ms. Carmelita waiting to lock up the center. Weather permitting the fun continued into the blacktop or a walk to the pond with his bestie. Everyday we felt he had a full day. As immigrant parents with no immediate family around us CLC was a godsend. And we were wishing the same for our 9 month old who was there for 6 weeks. Corporate social responsibility is what corporations around the world are looking to include in their Management credo and mission statements. HCC has been doing it for so long, so well and it would be shame to retract from a service that has been so critical for the community in times when it is needed the most. As a fellow parent said - “it was a great place getting better”. I sincerely wish the community comes together to find a solution.

It is beyond disappointing to learn the news of the CLC closing. It feels like HCC administrators are abandoning the very Values of HCC which include the goals of "nurturing, partnerships, integrity, respect, excellence and service." (https://www.howardcc.edu/about-us/mission-and-strategic-plan/) The CLC’s role as a lab for the early childhood education and child care college programs gives tremendous integrity to HCC’s Division of Continuing Education & Workforce Development. What a loss the community will feel when the CLC is no longer there for HCC students who are working toward Child Care Certification Preparation & Professional Development! It is stunning that HCC would let this excellent childcare center dissolve, especially at a moment in our society when we are understanding the urgency of quality childcare and education. The HCC is making a financial decision during a crisis that will degrade quality options for the exterior community as well as the HCC’s interior community forever. After everything that HCC has invested in the CLC and after all the CLC has given to this region, I just wonder WHY? Of COURSE I am profoundly grateful that my son was able to be a Dragonfly and a Butterfly at CLC!!!! What he lived there with his amazing teachers and his friends as well as the school staff could not have been better. (THANK YOU to everyone!) This is a terrible, painful loss. I hope there can be a different outcome.

We have had at least one child at CLC for the past 7.5 years. It has been a second home to my kids, a place where they felt safe and loved and could be truly themselves. Although my daughter is now a second grader, her CLC classmates remain her best friends. My husband is an HCC professor, and the availability of excellent childcare that is also convenient has made it much easier for him to be a working parent. The children feel they are part of the HCC community and love their interactions with the students from various departments (education, nursing, theatre, and more) who visit the classrooms. Last but certainly not least, the teachers and staff at CLC are excellent. Friends at other centers have had to deal with a revolving door of teachers. There has been very little turnover in our time at CLC. This speaks to the quality of the center and provides the consistency our children need. The fact that HCC made this decision without involving parents or teachers is heartbreaking and short sighted and a slap in the face to those who have been loyal to HCC for many years.

My family was heartbroken when we discovered the CLC would not be reopening. I am an HCC student and was a part time employee of HCC prior to the pandemic. We are a military family who chose to live in this region of Maryland even though my spouse is stationed in DC, so that I would be able to attend HCC for an allied health program. I am now struggling with the choice of keeping my seat in a coveted clinical program because I do not have reliable childcare support. The CLC was uniquely wonderful for early childhood development. The teachers and staff have been excellent, and the level of care and attention each child receives is unmatched elsewhere. My daughter was shy and wary of meeting new friends when she first arrived, now she asks each day when will she get to go back to her school. Any friend or teacher who knows her now sees her big personality shine because she gained confidence at the CLC. The thought of the CLC closing is difficult enough for parents and our little ones who do not understand why they cannot go back to school, but it is horrendous to treat these educators this way. The teachers and staff are unmatched in their compassion and care for our children. The decision to close is unconscionable. It is particularly shocking after the college received a prestigious award just last fall for its excellence. Closing the CLC is a mistake. Reconsider this decision.

We moved to Howard County in 2019 and chose to trust The CLC with both of our kids’ learning this past school year. Our 5 year old is now well prepared for Kindergarten and we could not have felt more comfortable with our infant under their care. Our family would greatly appreciate not having to switch centers once again once this pandemic is over. We believe in stability, have already had to move our children once in the past year, and have never felt so confident in who we were leaving our children with - The CLC is a blessing to this community and the children, parents, teachers, and administration are like family.

This is a fantastic facility for children. The quality of care is amazing.

Closing the CLC permanently is a mistake. The letter announcing the abrupt decision to close the school sited the fact that only 20 students belong to faculty or students, yet the program goes from infant to 5 year old and many HCC students are pursuing 2 year degrees. My daughter started HCC when my wife went through the accelerated nursing program. My wife graduated, but that did not mean we immediately unenrolled our child from the CLC. I can think of many other parents who have graduated but kept their child in the daycare. Digging up the original mission statement also completely ignores the value that CLC has for HCC students who aren't parents. How many times have HCC students observed or taught our children? I personally did so as an education student at HCC years ago. Please consider how this decision will effect the community HCC is here to serve. There are several daycares just within a two mile radius that have shut down permanently within the past few months. Where will this leave HCC students and staff who do have children when classes resume in person? There were extremely limited options prior to the pandemic, and this just limits them even more. Please do whatever you can do keep CLC open and not waste the amazing renovations and efforts Laurie has put in to improve the school just within the past 2 years.

It is beyond disappointing to learn the news of the CLC closing. It feels like HCC administrators are abandoning the very Values of HCC which include the goals of "nurturing, partnerships, integrity, respect, excellence and service." (https://www.howardcc.edu/about-us/mission-and-strategic-plan/) The CLC’s position as a lab for the early childhood education and child care college programs gives tremendous integrity to HCC’s Division of Continuing Education & Workforce Development. What a loss the community will feel when the CLC is no longer there for HCC students who are working toward Child Care Certification Preparation & Professional Development! It is stunning that HCC would let this excellent childcare center dissolve, especially at a moment in our society when we are understanding the urgency of quality childcare and education. The HCC is making a financial decision during a crisis that will degrade quality options for the exterior community as well as the HCC’s interior community forever. After everything that HCC has invested in the CLC and after all the CLC has given to this region, I just wonder WHY? Of COURSE I am profoundly grateful that my son was able to be a Dragonfly and a Butterfly at CLC!!!! What he lived there with his amazing teachers and his friends as well as the school staff could not have been better. (THANK YOU to everyone!) This is a terrible, painful loss. I hope there can be a different outcome.

Ever since I started going to HCC, my son has been going to CLC and it has been a true blessing to be able to afford the school and the hours work around my school schedule. The staff are excellent people to have your kids around and my son has been learning new things nonstop since he been there. It broke my heart when I heard CLC closing and it’s so hard to find great quality daycares!!

Please think about these children. Everyone has been affected by this pandemic in one way or another, but the greatest sufferer is this age group. They learn so much in a very short time than an average adult would ever learn in years and everyday is just a missed oportunity for them, please reconsider opening CLC for the sake of the children.

please open CLC

We feel extremely fortunate and appreciative of having our children enrolled in the Children's Learning Center for the last three and a half years. We have found the center excellent, from it's leadership in Ms. Moran to the teachers who have really been a blessing to our kids and helped them develop academically and socially in so many ways. Our son James was 13 months and not crawling when he got to the CLC. He was crawling within about a month of arrival. His knowledge of letters and numbers - and enthusiasm for them! - came entirely from the CLC, it was not something we were even aware he was ready for at three. Our daughter, though she wasn't 2 when the center temporarily closed, continues to ask to see her friends. We greatly appreciate it as a diverse, strong community. The extra effort the staff put in - from a fantastic Christmas show, to regular conferences with excellent personalized learning goals for our children, to lending our kid a favorite book to take home - is apparent every day. When we moved to the county 3 years ago, we found an apartment near a name-brand daycare and assumed we'd move there - we realized how poor the care was at that center and changed plans. We found the CLC and moved to Harper's Choice to be near it. It means so much to us that we bought a home this fall in Hickory Ridge. We looked at another area that would have shortened both our commutes, but we decided we wanted to stay close to the CLC. We wanted you to hear how highly we value and esteem it and hope HCC reopens the center. We hope the CLC can continue providing HCC, the broader community, and our family this excellent education for children, soon.

Aneela is a hard working teacher mother and wife.

Please don’t !

Please reopen! Think of the little minds who need the education too!

Because our children are the future!

When my family moved to Columbia two years ago, we were so nervous about finding trusted childcare. We toured the CLC last and we just “knew”. The CLC is an amazing facility. We were drawn to it partially because of the lab school element, and how it was part of the community. Our daughters have found a trusted home at the CLC, and we as parents have found a community. The teachers and staff are so amazing, and the CLC was thriving under the leadership of Laurie Moran. A new library was recently completed, and the amazing playground facilities not much earlier before that. So much investment has gone into such an amazing center, and it has such a legacy. It would be a shame to throw that away and make this yet another loss due to COVID-19, especially at a time when so many are struggling. The CLC is an amazing place, and the parents deserve the opportunity to have a say in its future.

It is with a heavy heart that I write this petition. CLC has been one of the most outstanding early childhood learning centres in Columbia. As a resident since 1999 I have seen the fruition of this school. My grandson was a student at CLC for a year before we moved him to a Montessori school where I have been a teacher since 2003. The foundation that he inherited at CLC is unique and some of the happiest years that I as a grandparent could ever witness. The staff have always been very loving and professional and the environment at the school was an extension of ones home. I do realize that CLC was primarily started as help for the students at HCC for their childcare needs but it worked successfully as a childcare facility even beyond the borders of HCC and into the greater Columbia Community at large. Parents and children have grown to cherish this school and therefore to discontinue the exceptional childcare that so many of our families rely on, at such a critical juncture in their lives, is truly a tragedy beyond words. At such a time we need to strengthen the foundation of our children, rather than weaken their academic future. It is my sincere prayer and hope that those in charge will hear the plea of so many families and reconsider this decision. Sincerely, Shireen Mathur