EXCERPT FROM: Tallahassee.com
By Bill Cotterell
State employees are understandably reluctant to talk on the record about any developments in their offices, especially when the news is bad.
There is a widespread fear of getting fired for making even the most mild, accurate comment about what's going on in different agencies. That's a bit of a misperception but, if I was a state employee and somebody came around asking even the most innocuous questions, I'd probably play safe and say, "Uhh ... not me."
But that's a topic for another column, another day.
With this in mind, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that, when their children are involved, employees are not so shy about speaking up.
The sad news that the Gwen Cherry Child Development Center will be closing on April 30 was the subject of a meeting of parents last Thursday night. As they arrived the next morning and logged in their children on the lobby computer, I interviewed several parents and one word kept coming up: "Devastated." The parents were devastated because they will have to make other arrangements for their kids, probably paying more and travelling farther from their jobs every morning and evening. Day care has ripple effects, affecting whether you have to leave the office promptly at 5 p.m., who runs the other kids to school, all sorts of things that the state does not and cannot concern itself with.
Most of the children are too young to worry right now, but it will be a joyless springtime for them, if the Gwen Cherry Center closes as now seems inevitable. It's been almost 20 years, but I can remember how sad my son was for days when one of his playmates at the old Northside Centre day-care facility moved away — and I can only imagine how the tears multiply for toddlers suddenly separated from eight or 10 friends they've progressed with from the infant room to the big kids table.
But, of course, that's something else the state can't concern itself with, not when there are budget cuts to make.
What should concern the state is that day care has been a win-win proposition for about 25 years, for employers and employees. Morale improves when employees know their children are safe and near by, when they can sometimes have lunch or take part in special events with the little ones. The state benefits from greater productivity and retention of employees, particularly among single mothers.
The center was named for Miami-Dade County state Rep. Gwen Cherry, a champion of working women and education who served in the Legislature in the 1970s. Women, particularly black women legislators, had to do everything the male legislators did in those days, while also being wilderness voices for "women's issues" like child care.
Politics has always played a role in employer-provided day care. Gov. Bob Graham was running for the U.S. Senate against a woman, the late Sen. Paula Hawkins, when he opened the first employee day-care center out behind the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. The Ina S. Thompson Center is still operating.
Gov. Bob Martinez's run for re-election and was in trouble with women in 1989 and 1990 when he rushed the opening of a daycare center at Northwood Centre. He got the TV exposure he wanted at the opening, but the nursery was ill-situated around the loading dock of a former department store and lasted only a few years.
Full disclosure: My son went there for a couple of those years and loved it. Also, I was invited to dress up as Santa Claus at both Northwood and the Gwen Cherry Center in separate years, but have had no other personal contact with any of the day-care centers for the last 15 years or so.
The big facility behind the DOE building has had some near misses in the past few years, but this time it looks like curtains. The DOE, facing massive budget cuts, couldn't afford the $130,000 to $180,000 a year for rent, security, maintenance and other administrative costs.
Child Time, the Jacksonville-based company operating the center, didn't seek a contract renewal and two companies that submitted bids were discarded, DOE said.
Full text available at Tallahassee.com.