MCC denies rumors Childern’s Learning Center will close

After rumors circulated about the imminent closing of the Children’s Learning Center at McHenry County College, several students and staff members spoke against that at Thursday night’s board meeting.

Officials, however, denied there was any truth to the rumors. “I’m disturbed by that because the information is unreliable, it’s false, it’s incitive,” Trustee Dennis Adams said, adding he believes the person responsible for circulating the rumors should be reprimanded.

The center provides child care for students’ children ages 15 months to 5 years, and preschool services for 3- to 5-year-olds, the latter open to the community at large, staff said.

MCC student Diane Koziol said she has two children and wouldn’t be able to attend classes without the services of the center. “We rely on the Children’s Learning Center to prepare our children for a lifetime of learning at a reasonable price,” she said.

Another student said she had not registered for summer classes because she heard the center was closing. A petition to keep the center open signed by at least 170 people was submitted to the board of trustees.

The center also serves as a practical learning environment for the 300 or so students in MCC’s early childhood education department, department chair Lisha Linder said. If the center were to close, several courses would have to be eliminated, she said.

Smith said she told staff that auxiliary programs that don’t break even financially should find ways to do so, especially in light of the college facing a possible increase in state-mandated pension obligations next year. The center, which charges a fee to parents, is about $150,000 in the red yearly, she said.

Smith said that during a meeting of the human and social sciences division earlier this week, she said the center would not close.

“I specifically said ‘No, we are not closing the Children’s Center.’ I didn’t know how more emphatically I could say it. I must have said it four times.”

Still, a lot of people are concerned the center might close, Linder said. “We understand that is on the table. Whether it’s rumor or not, that’s is what is circulating,” she said.