Skeptical of Reasons
Union Rips Day-Care Closing

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

The Lucille Murray day-care center shut its doors Jan. 11 after 35 years of operation, but union and city officials say the fight is not over - vowing to file lawsuits and hold City Council hearings to unlock the mystery as to why the Bloomberg administration closed it.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang CLOSING ITS DOORS: District Council 1707 Executive Director Raglan George Jr. (with microphone) joined Lucille Murray staff members, parents and clergy at a protest Jan. 11 on the day-care center's final day. 'Closing day-care centers is now a strategy for budget savings,' said Mr. George.

"I spoke to the [Administration for Children's Services] Commissioner and didn't get a satisfactory answer," said Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. "It doesn't seem that major repairs are needed."

ACS's Rationale

ACS officials have said that they are closing the center because it needs $650,000 in structural improvements and due to prior financial mismanagement.

Critics of the decision have argued that in the past when a sponsoring board has misappropriated funds, ACS has found another board to take over the center's management.

Ms. Gotbaum noted that while the roof needs patching, the landlord had agreed to pay for half the cost and the two rooms affected by the roof leak were not currently being used. She questioned whether the $650,000 figure was accurate. ACS officials will not disclose what repairs warrant that sum.

The building has passed recent Department of Buildings and Department of Health inspections, with the only outstanding violations related to the building's elevator.

Members of District Council 1707 who work at the center and parents of the children who attend it held a tearful rally Jan. 11 in a last-ditch effort to keep the center open. "Lucille Murray is the 16th child-care center to be closed in minority neighborhoods of need since January 2005 and the fourth center to be shut down in the South Bronx," said DC 1707 Executive Director Raglan George Jr. "Mayor Bloomberg has committed his last two years in office to helping people move out of poverty and providing the support services needed to do that. Closing Lucille Murray is totally at odds with that commitment."

The union is helping parents to find an attorney to take legal action to force the city to re-open the center. "We believe that the city acted improperly, and this will come out in the lawsuit," said Neal Tepel, the executive assistant to Mr. George.

Councilman Bill de Blasio is looking to schedule a hearing to get a fuller explanation as to why the center was closed and, more generally, to look into the protocols used for closing centers. "We want to make sure no day-care center is closed without being 100-percent sure that it has to be," said Mr. De Blasio's spokeswoman, Jean Weinberg.

Ms. Gotbaum said that ACS Commissioner John B. Mattingly told her Jan. 4 that he would meet with her to explain the reasons for the center's closure, but was told last week by his office that he would not be available until Jan. 18.