'It's a nightmare.' Families to fight to keep day care open after sudden closure announcement

"

Samantha Tepper and several other parents in the Rhinebeck area said they felt blindsided on Thursday by a local nonprofit's announcement that their day care would be closing later this year. The Teppers were thrilled earlier this summer when they learned their 4-year-old daughter Isla received a slot at the Northern Dutchess Early Learning Center on Route 9. Isla's grandparents even sent her a card congratulating her on acceptance into her new school. Then on Tuesday, all parents received a letter from the board president and the CEO of the nonprofit that operates the day care, Ramapo For Children, breaking the bad news. "This really came out of absolutely nowhere," Samantha Tepper said. The nonprofit's higher-ups said that after running the day care for six years, operating costs and salaries are too much to handle, and the day care would be closing in December. "It seems like there wasn't a whole lot of homework done on the part of the board to look at different options," Tepper said. "The parents weren't consulted." The day care's director, Priscilla Gideon told News 12 she did not know it was closing either until Tuesday when the parents learned. Gideon said that over the next four months, staff and families will collaborate on ways to keep the day care open at least through the 2024-2025 school year, or maybe even take it over. "We're very close with the children we care for, and the families," Gideon said. "To suddenly uproot them to someplace else – even if there were some place available – is so disruptive." Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Ramapo For Children CEO Dan Stephens said the numbers would not even come out of the red if the nonprofit renovated the aging building to serve more families. Without any intervention from the state government to help cover increasing losses, Ramapo For Children will no longer operate day cares. The Northern Dutchess Early Learning Center is the nonprofit's only day care operation for another four months. "The model is increasingly hard to operate," Stephens said. We're not looking to close this one and open another one a few towns over or something like that. That is not in the plans." The problem is not going away for the Tepper family. It will soon be compounded. Their younger daughter, 3-month-old Margot, has been on a day care waiting list since before she was born. "