State Shuts Down Monroe Early Learning Center

A state inspector with the Public Health Department closed down the Monroe Early Learning Center Friday for allegedly having an improper license. The former Jockey Hollow Child Care had reopened at Chalk Hill School as a private business after the Board of Education decided to discontinue the program at Jockey Hollow Middle School and to close Chalk Hill as a school and turn the building over to the town.

Dawn Ryan, director and founder of the day care center, had negotiated a lease with Town Attorney Jack Fracassini, which was approved by the Town Council last month. The business primarily provided care for children of town teachers and police officers.

"The state is alleging there is not a proper license," Fracassini said Tuesday. "It's my understanding Ms. Ryan is doing what she can to straighten that out. The state indicated she cannot run out of that facility until she gets what they deem to be proper licensing."

When the daycare was overseen by the school district, it did not have to comply with all state guidelines to operate, but now it is a private daycare.

When asked if he knew if Ryan had a license, while negotiating the lease with the town, Fracassini said, "I was told the proper paperwork was in place. My responsibility was to negotiate the lease. It was signed off on and she signed off and did what she was required to do under the lease."

Neither Ryan nor Glen Belush, the CPA for the Monroe Early Learning Center, could be reached in time to comment on this story.

First Selectman Steve Vavrek declined to comment Tuesday beyond saying that everything the town did was legal.

"Dawn reached out to everyone she can," he said. "I spoke to Dawn a couple of times over the weekend and got the state delegation involved. We're not spending town resources on this."