Update: Meeting with OCC Admin & CCCD President Reveals Ongoing Negligence and Wasted Taxpayer Dollars

Well, the meeting with the OCC Administration and CCCD President was disappointing, to say the least. 

Liz Parker (CCCD president), Angelica Suarez (OCC president), Rich Pagel (VP of Administrative Services OCC), and Madjid Niroumand (VP of Student Services OCC), met with our parent representative last Thursday. They went through the proposed restructure plan in detail and acknowledged that the plan we had set forth makes more financial and operational sense than their plan does. Despite that, they have decided to hang their hat on the message that they would rather serve only student parents and LOSE more money than continue to serve any community parents at the Children's Center. (where's the "community" in community college, right?)

The 48 remaining spots at the Children's Center come July 1 will only be offered to OCC students and OCC Faculty/Staff. If there are any spots remaining after offering enrollment to these subgroups, these spots will remain empty and not be offered to community parents. We anticipate that given the timeline of these decisions, several of these spots will remain unfilled, thus driving an even larger deficit than initially thought. This deficit could be upwards of $1 million a year. THIS IS TAXPAYER MONEY THEY ARE WILLING TO LOSE. 

Over the last month, they have made us hopeful that there was some sort of productive path forward. We were wrong.  They led us to believe they'd be willing to entertain an alternative plan that made more financial sense. They have heard dozens of heartbreaking stories over the last month about the lives the center has changed, the dire futures of the kids at the center, and the loss of employment of beloved staff. The Childhood Ed and Speech Language Pathology OCC students won't have the center to do their fieldwork in the same capacities. OCC and the Board of Trustees do not care. 

In addition to the acknowledgement that our plan made more financial sense, they also finally confirmed our suspicions that if their plan doesn't work after 3 years (which it intentionally wont), they plan on leasing the space to privatize the center. They already have 6 offers. This means that they will likely serve NO student parents and their statements about protecting their students are just a guise for "phase out the children at the center so we can make more money in 3 years". Coincidentally, in 39 months, just over 3 years, our teachers, who have been laid off and put on a required waitlist to be placed into another job, will be officially off the books and not entitled to getting their jobs back. 

It’s no surprise why OCC and The Board have hired a PR firm to help them with their narrative. 

Let me make this abundantly clear- to them, our children have become the dice in their game. Their lack of transparency continued until their hand was forced to acknowledge their actual plans for the center. We have worked countless hours, had sleepless nights and did the work they are getting paid six-figures to do, only for them to make a poor financial decision for the university. Here's your taxpayer dollars hard at work, folks. 

Ironically, the round table meeting on Wednesday with Katrina Foley discussed how Orange County is considered a "childcare desert" with demand for early childhood education far outweighing supply. Our last string of hope has been the acknowledgement of Katrina Foley that our Center and our kids matter. (Her sons are also graduates from the center so she has experienced the magic firsthand!) We understand that she may not be able to sway the decisions that have been made, but it actually feels like she cares and for that we are immensely grateful. These are the type of humans and politicians we need more of in this world. 

We are gutted by the outcome of the meeting Thursday. It's even further maddening that they know our plan is superior. They know they could have saved the current state of the center, supported the student parents, AND continued to serve community parents. Instead, they are slowly draining the life from the center over the next three years. 

We are continuing to work to make sure that the community they "serve" understand the choices these administrators and elected officials are willing to make and at what cost. We are not done fighting to make sure that these individuals are held accountable for the decisions they have made to traumatize our families and the Children’s Center. 

ALL our kids matter, even if they can't see it. 

[As originally posted on Preserve The OCC Harry & Grace Steele Children's Center]