Longtime Child Care Center In Fairfield To Lose Lease Next Year

FAIRFIELD, CT — An online petition has been launched in an effort to get Fairfield town officials to reconsider ending the lease for A Child's Garden, a longstanding child care facility, at the town-owned Senior Center site on Mona Terrace in Fairfield.

A Child's Garden has been at the site for more than 40 years, and according to First Selectman Bill Gerber, the owners were informed in February that the lease would not be renewed after the 2024-25 school year.

"While various town bodies have cited many different and conflicting reasons for the non-renewal, it is clear that the town views this as a short-term solution to other town problems," wrote Kara Hunter, who started the petition. "However, the town is not considering the long-term impact on the families that would be displaced en masse. Such a decision would have an enormous negative impact on the emotional well-being of the children, and present a significant financial hardship for the families as well."

Hunter continued, "We have a childcare crisis in Connecticut right now in terms of both access/availability and affordability. The families displaced by such a decision would lose access to both high-quality and affordable childcare. With multi-year waitlists at comparable programs in the area, it is inevitable that such a decision would force working parents (mainly mothers) to leave the workforce hindering the long-term economic prospects of our community."

As of Friday afternoon, nearly 800 people had signed the petition toward a goal of 1,000 signatures.

A Child's Garden has been in the space for more than 40 years, and in an interview this week with Melissa Sheketoff on WICC, Gerber said that the private entity is paying rent of $8.20 per square foot.

But the reason for not renewing the lease has nothing to do with money, he said, but more with the needs of a number of town programs that are currently squeezed for space.

"I kind of resent people saying that I'm closing A Child's Garden," Gerber said, adding that he offered to help the facility find new space to operate. "I'm not renewing a lease in one space, but it is possible to set up in a new space and move. They had a property that they sold for $925,000 on the other side of town."

Patch reached out to A Child's Garden for comment, but did not immediately receive a reply.

In a statement to Patch on Friday, Gerber expanded on the situation:

A Child’s Garden in Fairfield has provided day care to families for years within the Oldfield Elementary School space after it was closed. This is a for-profit, private business renting Town property. Town officials have been investigating the use of this space for Town purposes for years, and for this reason prior administrations have extended A Child’s Garden’s lease on a year-to-year basis. We have not "closed" a Child’s Garden. I have extended their lease for one more year through May 30, 2025 and informed management in February, giving them 16 months to relocate. Their existence as a business should not be tied to this space. Businesses relocate all the time. We even offered to help management find new space, but they have not taken us up on this.

I do recognize the shortage of child care today, and that is why when we first began the conversation with the owners of this private business in February and gave them so much time to relocate.

There are several Town programs that lack sufficient space or are operating out of sub-standard space, who require better accommodations. The Board of Education’s Early Childhood Center has requested space so that they can consolidate multiple locations into one, and accept more children into their pre-school program. Fairfield Public Health Nursing is one, existing in a trailer on the same grounds with a leaking roof and periodic infestation of mice. Our Human Services department needs space for social services and counselling. These are all very worthy uses of the space, are essential functions of town, and are not private, profit-making businesses.

The decision by the owners of A Child’s Garden to close instead of considering relocation is one that they, it appears, have made, despite offers of assistance from the Town. I trust that they have considered the needs of the families they serve in making that decision.