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Date: 3/4/2021
LONGMEADOW – A group of community residents is determined to save Longmeadow’s Greenwood Children’s Center through an awareness campaign and change.org petition and it seems to have worked – at least for now.
The Facebook group “Save Greenwood Children’s Center” has roughly 160 members that share photos and stories from their family’s time there and discuss steps to keep the municipally-run daycare from being shut down permanently.
The center, which is housed in one wing of the Greenwood Center on Maple Street, closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 16, 2020, along with the other daycare facilities in the state. Later that month, 40 employees were furloughed. While daycare centers were allowed to reopen in late June of 2020, the Greenwood Children’s Center remained closed and has not reopened. Since the closure, there have been discussions at Parks & Recreation Board meetings about whether the daycare will reopen.
The long-term future of the center is unclear at this time. The daycare program, which was budgeted in the current 2021 fiscal year at $200,000, was not funded in the original draft budget for FY22, However, Town Manager Lyn Simmons recommended $150,000 for the program.
“The Select Board can adopt that or make modifications, ultimately the Select Board’s budget is what goes to Town Meeting,” said Town Manager Lyn Simmons. “The Finance Committee will also be asked for a recommendation on the budget.” If passed at the town meeting, Longmeadow will have funded daycare services through June 2022.
It should be noted that the dollar amount of the daycare line item is scheduled to be adjusted at the Special Town Meeting in the fall. “As we get the program up and running again, we know what staffing looks like, what enrollment numbers are, etc.... we may need to supplement the $150k with additional funds at the Fall Town Meeting. This is a cautious approach with all the COVID uncertainty at this point and trying to revive a program that has been closed for almost a year,” Simmons told Reminder Publishing.
The Save Greenwood Children’s Center group is hoping to convince the town to permanently fund the daycare. A petition created to express the demand for the center at change.org has more than 635 signatures at press time.