After abrupt announcement of Christian day care closure in Orland Park, over 1,200 sign petition hoping to keep it open

Laura Dampf’s 2-year-old son learned to write letters and count to 30, and to 10 in Spanish while attending the day care at Parkview Christian Church in Orland Park.

The program was compassionate, Dampf said, to the point where her son prayed for his “best friends” — his teachers and classmates — every night. The caliber of the curriculum was also a draw, Dampf said, because as soon as students were accepted at 15 months old, they began their lessons.

Christina Kaczanowski, who had two children that attended the program over the last year and another signed up to start in June, said the program’s staff and the Christian-based learning were “irreplaceable.”

“Our kids were their kids,” Kaczanowski said. “The people that were there were there because they believed in the mission of bring kids closer to Jesus and they lived that out. It was super special to have that.”

Their children, and the other 100 or so students in the Parkview Christian Church in Orland Park day care and preschool, will have to be placed in new child care facilities for next fall as church officials announced that the programs will close June 23.

“It’s a huge loss for us,” Dampf said. “To take that away is really detrimental and difficult for a lot of families.”

The Parkview board decided to close the day care and preschool because the programs did not reach capacity, along with difficulty flipping the classrooms for other church youth programs and low profitability, church officials said.

“The decision by the board made here to cease the day care this fall, it was very difficult. It was bittersweet,” said board co-chair Jim Oberman.

Parents were notified via email April 26 that the day care and preschool would be closing, Dampf said. The email stated, in part, “we understand that this news may come as a shock and cause inconvenience for you and your family,” Dampf said.

The email stated officials decided to “discontinue” the day care and preschool services, but Dampf said she and other parents weren’t given a reason why the programs were ending or given the opportunity to meet with leaders in advance to brainstorm another solution.

In response, as of Friday, 1,217 people have signed an online petition to keep the day care and preschool open.

Kaczanowski said she received and read the email about the closure as she waited in the parking lot to pick up her children from the day care. The email left her confused with more questions than answers, she said, and Dampf agreed.

“No reason, no transparency. There was no opportunity for parents to be able to gather or there was no meeting,” Dampf said. “I, along with other parents, have written to church leadership with heartfelt words and have all received the same form, copy-and-paste answer.”

Church officials had been considering starting a day care program in recent years, said Laurie Kamp, executive director of children’s programs, because the church had an established preschool program.

In the summer of 2020, the church board met to determine if they could start a day care program in the fall so essential workers and parents working from home could have child care options amid the coronavirus pandemic, Oberman said. With the preschool already established and licensed, it was easy for the church to open a day care facility, he said.

By August 2020, the church offered preschool and day care services, Oberman said. The program was successful, he said, with parents complementing the teacher’s developmental and faith-based teaching skills.

Recently, as the board reviewed its options, Oberman said it realized other day care and preschool options were offered in the area and the church needed the classroom space for other programming. For weekend children’s ministries and programs, Kamp said church officials had to flip the classrooms for other uses.

“It really just came down to trying to really ascertain as an organization how we can best meet the needs of our people in the community with the space and resources we have. As much as it was a good thing during the pandemic and as much as those families love it, it’s just isn’t the best way that we can use all of our resources,” Kamp said.

Financially, the programs either broke even or brought in a small amount of profit, said executive director of operations Ken Andersen. The programs had capacity for 181 students but attendance never reached higher than 56%, according to church data.

Between both programs, Andersen said the church hired 32 people, some part time and some full-time, of which six have informed the church they would soon be leaving the programs. Amid a teacher shortage, Andersen said, it would be even more challenging to find replacements.

“We have a lot of capacity that we have yet to fill right now,” Andersen said. “It is hard enough to find teachers who are not only fully licensed but actually believe in Christ and are able to lead those kids and families through a spiritual journey.”

Since parents have been informed about the closures, Andersen said he has personally met and talked with parents who reached out with questions. Kaczanowski said she talked with Andersen after receiving the email, and she appreciated his openness to discuss the issue.

While parents were upset church officials did not hold a meeting to discuss the closure before hand, Oberman said church officials decided not to meet with parents because they knew their perspective: that the programs were beneficial and should remain open.

“We know we’re delivering a high quality, excellent experience for the child. We know that the parents who have kids in it are going to be massively disappointed and emotional about it,” Oberman said.

Kamp and Oberman said the church wanted to give parents time to sign up for new day care or preschool programs. But, Dampf and Kaczanowski said being informed at the end of April that the programs were ending did not leave enough time to sign their children up for another program.

Dampf said she began looking for other day care options for her son. One day care told her there was a waiting list of nine children and there wasn’t much hope that her son would be admitted if he was added to the wait list, she said.

Dampf said she ultimately was able to sign her son up for a nearby day care, which had only two available spots, but it isn’t a faith-based day care. Local faith-based day cares have waiting lists, she said, and her son is on one wait list but he will likely not be admitted until January.

“I am sad about that, because that has been a huge reason why we choose Parkview,” Dampf said. “There’s a child care crisis going on, for working parents, where it’s really difficult to find care.”

Kaczanowski said she still hasn’t been able to find placement for her children. Finding a faith-based child care program has been difficult, she said, and she’s been setting up tours to see new facilities.

The places that are at the top of her list are full and have wait lists and the rest she isn’t 100% comfortable with, Kaczanowski said.

“I haven’t made a decision yet, but I have to. I’m going to have to send them somewhere that I feel just OK about rather than really excited about,” Kaczanowski said.