July 1, 2004

M.J. Richlen resigns position as Children’s Center director

After 18 years at the Community Children’s Center, M.J. Richlen, the center’s director, has left to make way for changes in the day care’s operations.

Richlen called her decision “timely” since the Children’s Center board will initiate a strategic plan this fall to restructure the program and start a fundraising campaign to dig the nonprofit day care out of a fiscal mire.

Richlen gave notice to the board at the end of March of her intent to resign in August, citing lack of energy to properly run the Children’s Center.

But directives from the board at the beginning of June to modify teacher-child ratios, reduce food expenses, enact a hiring freeze and eliminate one of the Waldorf-inspired programs caused Richlen to leave earlier than expected, she said in a letter to the board dated June 16. Her last day was Wednesday, June 30.

Though the board may have acted in the interest of the Children’s Center’s financial solvency, Richlen said in her letter, the sacrifices the board chose were “less than proactive” and appeared to be made “without seeking out a true picture of the ensuing implications.”

The Children’s Center has been operating in the red for the last three years, board president Sean Creighton said during an interview last week that also included Richlen. According to the budget, the center’s expenses of $448,000 in 2000 exceeded revenues of $415,000 by $33,000. The center took a net loss of $11,000 in both 2001 and 2002 and continued to spend beyond its income in 2003.

In addition to the weak financial picture, the Children’s Center needs to make some immediate improvements to its aging facility, Richlen and Creighton said. In the Vernay building, the bathrooms need to be renovated and the roof needs to be replaced. The playground needs attention, and the inside of the complex needs to be repainted. Creighton estimates the cost of the improvements would be at least $100,000.

Both the board and the center’s staff agree that the financial challenges facing the center are caused by factors largely outside their control, Creighton and Richlen said. The Children’s Center is a tuition-driven school whose enrollment has declined steadily over the past six years, from a full capacity of 104 to an average of 65 to 75 students during the school year.

Citing last year’s Yellow Springs Men’s Group “Cost of Living Study,” Richlen and Creighton said that the increase in median age of local residents from 22 to 41 and a parallel decrease in school-age children under 6 from 286 to 136 over the last several decades has contributed to the center’s flagging enrollment.

Tuition costs around $330 a month for five days of after-school care during the school year and around $500 a month for five full or half days of toddler care. For a median two-income household, the cost of child care at the center, which is comparable to other day care centers in the area, can be “a wash,” Creighton said. And though lower-income families are eligible for Title XX tuition support, Greene County’s reimbursement rate rarely equals the cost per child, he said.

Richlen also said that more parents in Yellow Springs seem to be staying home with their children to either homeschool or have at least one stay-at-home parent. The potential trend is good for families, she said, but it means fewer children needing day care at the Children’s Center.

The center’s United Way funding has also decreased from $65,000 a year to $39,000 this year because of a national decrease in private donations and smaller than projected campaign results for the orgnization.

In spite of the financial difficulties, Richlen and Creighton said, board members and center staff are committed to the Children’s Center, the largest day care in Yellow Springs, and to ensuring that the families that depend on its survival do not get left behind. Richlen and Creighton said they are confident that through stringent and responsible management, the Children’s Center can thrive.

The board’s current priorities include finding a new director for the Children’s Center, starting a strategic restructuring plan and launching a major capital campaign to pay for facilities improvements.

The board began a regional search two weeks ago for a new director who can “give the place soul” the way that Richlen did, Creighton said, and also maintain “fiscal stability in tough times.” The board hopes to hire someone by the end of the summer.

In the interim period, the Antioch Company, one of the center’s local supporters, has agreed to “loan” Mike Wells, the company manager, to the center for the summer to observe the daily operations with an eye for creating an effective environment for quality education that is financial feasible, Creighton said. Wells’s charge is to prioritize facility upgrades, determine the center’s optimum size and establish a marketing initiative to grow the day care to that level.

The board anticipates launching an aggressive capital campaign sometime in the next three to six months, Creighton said. Board members pledged $3,000 in seed money for the fund last winter, he said, and they hope to reach out to new donors.

The center appeals to 1,500 households in its annual campaign each year, and receives funding from about 200 consistently active donors, including the Yellow Springs Community Foundation and many local businesses. But Creighton said he would like to appeal to a larger base of donors.

“It’s time for the community to step up and help us because we need their support to keep the treasure of what this place is,” Creighton said.

Creighton stressed that the board would only consider internal changes that would allow the center to preserve its educational philosophy and quality of care. The teacher-child ratio could be affected and some classrooms could be eliminated to combine groups of students under one teacher, he said. Long-term changes depend largely on Wells’s recommendations and the input from the new director, Creighton said.

If the Children’s Center continued on its present course without making any major changes, it would not survive three years, Creighton said. Or the center might need to find a partner to assume some of the financial burden of running a small, quality day care center, he said.

But neither Creighton nor Richlen can imagine Yellow Springs without the center, which has existed in some form since the 1920s.

“If we go away, nearly 70 children won’t have child care,” Creighton said. “Almost all Yellow Springs kids start here before going on to Mills Lawn. We’re sort of the first stop on the way to the public school.”

“There are some tough things against us, but I think we can pull through,” Richlen said.

—Lauren Heaton