Astoria close to choosing child care provider

Apr. 15—After reviewing proposals from two Astoria preschool providers, the City Council on Monday expects to chose one to partner with on child care.

The city announced plans to close Sprouts Learning Center in February after reaching a critical staffing shortage and operating at an unsustainable loss. The facility, which serves 21 children, is expected to close by the end of June.

Since announcing the decision to close, Bumble Art Studio and Astoria Head Start have approached the city with proposals for a public-private partnership to continue the service.

The City Council reviewed the proposals during a work session Friday morning and heard from the providers and the public.

"We have two very good proposals and we're very excited to have received both of them," Mayor Bruce Jones said. "As I said, we would have been excited to just receive one because we do not want our child care services to go away. It was a very painful decision by the City Council. We delayed it for as long as possible, but ultimately we had to make a decision to terminate these services in their existing configuration in order that we can provide other youth programs that are also vitally needed.

"So we're excited we have opportunities here to move forward on continuing without a loss of service."

Bumble Art Studio, which offers a preschool program and summer camps, has looked at ways to expand in their existing space but found it is not feasible.

Bumble serves about 33 children ages 3 to 6 from September through May.

The provider plans on taking over the Sprouts facility at the Astoria Recreation Center and existing enrollment and offering preschool and child care.

Bumble expects to serve 20 to 40 children at the start, then gradually grow to include infant care. When their current lease expires in August, Bumble plans to move over the rest of their services.

At that time, they expect to raise rates. Bumble hopes to partner with Preschool Promise, a state funded preschool program that makes services available to low-income families.

Their goal is to provide care for about 60 children, from infants to 5-year-olds. They also intend to offer art-based programs some weekends and evenings during the summer.

Astoria Head Start, a federally and state funded preschool program for low-income families, operates at Gray School in Astoria from September through June and provides care for about 40 children ages 3 to 5.

Head Start is unable to expand in its current space, and has had difficulty finding other options in Astoria. Gray School is also expected to undergo renovations, which could cause complications for the program.

Head Start hopes to shift operations to the city's space this summer and partner with another provider, Lauren Guiendon Childcare, to offer tuition-based care for children from infants to 5-year-olds. Guiendon intends to offer 46 slots and guarantee enrollment for Sprouts families.

Both Bumble and Astoria Head Start requested assistance with building upgrades.

Bumble asked for the city to offer the space rent free for the first five years. Head Start offered about $8,000 a year for rent during the first five years.

Several leaders and employees at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria spoke in favor of Bumble, which has discussed dedicating slots for hospital employees, many of which have children enrolled at Sprouts.

Ben Sherman, an orthopedic surgeon at the hospital, has a 2-year-old son enrolled at Sprouts. He said others in his clinic also have children enrolled at Sprouts, so maintaining the service is a priority for the hospital.

"Both my wife and myself work full time, and losing child care is something that makes us choose between working and taking care of our son," Sherman said. "So thank you guys, like a lot for taking this up and making it a priority."

Ciara Van Velsor, a resident with a 2-year-old son enrolled at Sprouts, said she hopes the service will resume this summer uninterrupted.

"The importance of child care in our community reverberates throughout, and I'm sure that's very obvious to all of you," Van Velsor said. "But I'm looking at, as a mother, having to choose between a job and child care. And this is a real thing for us.

"And I also wanted to make sure that all of you ... understand that it affects more than just 21 families," she said. "So it's a very large impact in which we need immediate assistance from you all."