Parents Fighting To Keep Downtown Day Care Open
Posted at: 03/04/2013 6:07 PM
| Updated at: 03/04/2013 11:03 PM
By: Laurie Stribling
lstribling@wdio.com
Parents are working to save a day care in downtown Duluth after officials said it will be shut down because of lead-based paint inside.
As of now, the University Nursery School, located in the Heaney Federal Building, will close in June. The United States General Services Administration owns the building and said during a routine check last summer officials found lead-based paint.
GSA said they made a temporary fix to the problem, but that the facility doesn't meet GSA child care standards. Their lease with the day care will end June 15.
Parents want GSA to make improvements instead of closing the day care. Michele LaVine has two kids that go to the University Nursery School and she is working to save it.
"I actually did email the President," LaVine said. "He says children are our future. I think, if children are our future, we need to put their future as a priority."
She said a group of parents reached out to Senator Al Franken for help. Franken was able to help extend the previous closure deadline which was in December.
GSA said they extended the lease from December to June in order to give parents time to find a new child care provider.
About 50 to 60 kids go to the day care. LaVine said it's the only day care centrally located downtown.
"It's going to be hard, I think, for everybody," LaVine said.
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