A child care center facing financial struggles at the University of South Dakota is considering changes that cause some parents in Vermillion to fear for the agency's future.
The Vucurevich Children's Center is at capacity this fall, serving 81 children of USD students, faculty and others, with more on a waiting list. But expenses have run 10 percent higher than revenue the past three years, causing university officials to look at other options for services.
"It has to be run at break-even like all other departments on the campus. You can't overspend," said Diane Zak, USD director of human resources.
The university runs the center on about a $400,000 annual budget in its facility near the DakotaDome.
The center has 12 to 15 full-time employees, 40 child-development work-study students from USD, and a teaching format that appeals to parents.
Outlining the future despite money woes
But amid the losses, the university is working with another child care agency, the Center for Children & Families, and with the campus Head Start program to help plot the Children's Center's future.
"This fall, we are partnering with these two agencies to survey the campus community about child care needs," Zak said in a letter to parents. "We are dedicated to providing a learning environment for current students who work with the Children's Center and to offering the best developmental learning opportunities for children."
But asked Friday whether there was any chance the center would close during this school year, Zak said, "I don't believe I can speak to that issue."
University spokesman Phil Carter also was unable to address the possibility.
"I cannot comment on that at this time," he said.
A manager at the Center for Children & Families referred questions to that private agency's chairwoman, but she could not be reached for comment.
Michelle Chaussee, 38, said the center's commitment to children attracted her when she and her husband, Mike, were new to Vermillion. She studied at USD and now is a physician assistant at the Vermillion Medical Clinic. Her husband is a microbiologist at the medical school. They have used the center's services eight years for their son, now a second-grader, and their daughter, now 3.
'It was the best day care in town'
"When I first started looking for day care, I thought without a doubt it was the best day care in town," Chaussee said. "I'm very concerned. I would be really disappointed if they decided to close it or transfer it."
Supporters said the center benefits from long-term employees and students as caregivers along with a format that draws in local resources. A news release in 2006 told how its director then, Merle Eintracht, teamed children with senior citizens for intergenerational learning and drew on community specialists to teach children in Spanish, music, kung fu and three-dimensional art.
'The university owes students' child care
Eintracht, 65, was director for 11 years before retiring in late 2008. She said last week that USD professors would use the agency for assignments and that "150 to 200 students went through the center every year as part of the academic process."
She said she earned an annual salary of about $42,000. She has not been replaced, though the university has assigned a supervisor to assist during the transition.
"The university owes students a place to put their children," Eintracht said.
Carter said the agency is more than a child care center because of its level of service and training opportunities, but that officials need to address the debt, he said.