@14:18 I'm a CDC-FBC parent as well - are you sure that the teachers are getting paid while the center is closed? I was under the impression they weren't as they are hourly...though I assume the director is salaried and will be paid which, given her handling of this situation, is appalling.

This whole situation is really unfortunate. I adore our teachers and would have a very hard time leaving them but the director is shockingly bad. Frankly, I think she should be fired.

I don't necessarily fault the parents who reported though I do think they escalated things way too quickly, exacerbating the situation. At the same time, the director and the church provided no information for far too long and were unresponsive to requests for information. From my perspective the water pipe/flood situation was a relatively minor situation that could have been quickly and safely dealt with while communicating with the parents who, from my experience, certainly would have understood. Instead, FBC-CDC tried to find a cheap way out, as 18:25 said, while being hostile and defensive with parents...I suspect this is going to cost them considerably more in the long run than new carpets ever would have.

On the plus side, we've gotten to know some of the families of the babies in our daughter's room better as we all scrambled to find alternate childcare!

This is the post 14 :18. I also want to clerify0 that the teachers are not doing anything illegal, but they are just forminglarge nanny shares in homes

Anonymous wrote:I really feel for you! As I read your post, PP, it sounds like some of the teachers are forming childcare settings in some of the parents homes??? It takes a while for these places to be licensed. What they are doing is not legal either.

My understanding is these teachers aren't operating formal home daycares. They are essentially being hired as temporary nannyshare/babysitters by a few families. No more legal or illegal than hiring a college kid to watch your kid for a few days.

I really feel for you! As I read your post, PP, it sounds like some of the teachers are forming childcare settings in some of the parents homes??? It takes a while for these places to be licensed. What they are doing is not legal either.

As a parent of a child in an infected room I have to say my opinion throughout this process has changed drastically. At first I was grateful they were looking into the carpets, having what I was told by the director, a professional will let them know if mold was growing. And I was happy they moved our kids to the fellowship hall where they had what I thought would be a safe room. Whether or not they had to combine classes for the time being did not bother me. I was angry about all of the threats and parents who were making what I thought was too big of a deal. Then the inspectors came and shut down the school. I am in a huge bind for child care and can not afford to pay what some of the teachers are charging to "help" the parents and form home daycares. All of this however, does make me think. What I thought was a mistake on the parents part of being angry and making a big deal, I no longer think is. I pay for my child to go to a daycare that provides a safe and healthy place for my kid to learn. My standards for safe and healthy may be different from the next, however we have inspectors to let us know what are the state and federal standards, and at a minimum we deserve to have those. Although I did not originally want them there, they came. And CDC was not up to standards. They were not communicating their plan with the parents, and they were faulted on more than just the carpets and leak problem. This shocked me. I would have thought they would have known that the fellowship hall was not a legal place for the children to be. I didn’t know, but isn’t that their job? Not only this, but the teachers I loved (not all of them) and the administration that I thought was more together and caring, has shown that they are not. Many teachers (who are getting paid while the school is down) are taking care of the kids and forming home daycares in parents homes. The administration is complaining about the parents who complained instead of accepting that they were opening against code. What was not my favorite place to begin with (but due to dc daycare waitlists, and a reasonable feeling of being content for now) had become a place that I am really disgusted by. For those of you who say just "move your child", I would ask you to tell me where? I am now looking.

A question for those filing the complaint(s): If you are so unhappy with the CDC why stay?

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, OP. You super sleuth. Thanks filing the complaint (anonymously) wink wink. I take that you have childcare for next week or oh yeah, you will never return again? Are you filing a lawsuit too? And now you are blasting your story on DCUM, why because no one agreed with your unhelpful approach on our list serv? No matter how much you may disagree with the slow and not-so-responsive Director, your aggressive and litigious ways has caused additional stress on a ton of working families, and the wonderful and dedicated teachers at FBC-CDC, many who have lovingly cared for young children for over a decade. So it sounds like you didn't get the best teacher - oh well, and your DD had to spend time with 3 year olds. Oh the horror! You belong in the coutroom or better yet, Hollywood, and not in any collaborative group forum where people come together to solve problems. Signed- Annoyed/ Amazed that a parent would call licensing on their own daycare

Your last comment is crazy! The reason why regulations are in place is for the safety of the children. It is our responsibility to keep children safe and if that means "call(ing) licensing of their own daycare" then so be it. If half the parents on this board who have children in daycare knew what goes on in their own daycares they would leave also. The other half have decided to turn a blind eye and are simply grateful to have a place to put their children.

It sounds like a pretty bad situation with wet carpets in a dark basement area. I can't imagine the mold problem! I wouldn't think that any parent would be keen to have a child under 2 in such an environment.

The director is definitely at fault and should have worked harder to resolve the issues. Blaming someone for reporting it is pathetic. If the Director had been doing her job and doing it well, it likely would not have come to that.

Thanks, OP. You super sleuth. Thanks filing the complaint (anonymously) wink wink. I take that you have childcare for next week or oh yeah, you will never return again? Are you filing a lawsuit too? And now you are blasting your story on DCUM, why because no one agreed with your unhelpful approach on our list serv? No matter how much you may disagree with the slow and not-so-responsive Director, your aggressive and litigious ways has caused additional stress on a ton of working families, and the wonderful and dedicated teachers at FBC-CDC, many who have lovingly cared for young children for over a decade. So it sounds like you didn't get the best teacher - oh well, and your DD had to spend time with 3 year olds. Oh the horror! You belong in the coutroom or better yet, Hollywood, and not in any collaborative group forum where people come together to solve problems. Signed- Annoyed/ Amazed that a parent would call licensing on their own daycare

First Baptist on 17th may have had a great reputation in the past but it seems like it has gone downhill and this is a prime example in how they are handling the flooding situation. I had my DD in their care for 2 days and then decided to remove her from the center after observing unhygienic surroundings (dead roaches in the gym in proximity to the kids) and being mislead by the director. I was informed that my DD was given a spot due to the formation of a new older 1's class (18 mo-24 mo). I thought that was perfect and was excited that we finally had a spot. It so happened that she was placed in the 2's class and it consisted mostly of almost 3 y.o.'s. Also, several of the teachers seemed great but her main teacher was barely present and we met her briefly in the hallway which she said only a few words to us before leaving. After speaking with some of the teachers in the gym, it seems like the class my DD was placed has been only half full for a while which seems like they were trying to fill this class up however they could (e.g. extending the age range). It might be okay for others, but I didn't like the idea of my DD being with kids so much older than her all the time. We left but seemed kind of shocked by our experience since everywhere we looked, FB CDC had a glowing reputation. The other thing that I didn't like was that they advertise online that they are NAEYC accredited. They are not and according to the director they have no desire to re-accredit. Also, this is not important to all but I felt it was false advertising and it should be removed from their website.

Jeez, who are you? That's kind of the idea. There's Angie's List, Yelp, don't you know how the internet works? Things don't get swept under the rug like they used to, those days are long gone.
The inspectors have shut it down temporarily while repairs are made. Hopefully the daycare will come out of this with an even better facility. In the meantime, folks, this would not be a good week to visit.

What’s “amazing” to me is how OP (anonymously of course) thinks this is the right forum to make the whole world know about her complaint. Sure, by all means raise your concerns to the other parents, to the directors, even call the mayor himself, but why not do this privately rather than besmirching what she called a “usually great day care.” If you have no one else to vent to, then you could keep the day care’s name out of it until something concrete is worth informing the general public. These negative comments will be tied to the day care on DCUM and the web for a long time--even if the OP later finds out they are doing everything properly.

Call licensing and make a complaint. Clearly it is not a safe place for children.

do they not have insurance, then usually a pro team comes in to evaluate? If you have trouble why not put a call into the licensing people to just help them navigate the proper channels to be sure it is safe. It sounds like they are trying to remediate a bad situation, but just do not have the knowledge

Just writing to vent about our normally terrific daycare, First Baptist Church on 17th, and their response to a broken pipe flood over the holiday weekend.

First, kudos to the teachers and church administrators for scrambling to make space in the fellowship hall and other rooms to make space for the affected classes. The teachers took turns watching the kids while moving furniture, cots, tables etc. on Wednesday morning and really busted butt to make sure that families would still be able to drop off their kids. That sort of makes up for calling us back to pick up the kids Tuesday when the fumes from cleanup turned out to be too much.

Secondly, who do they think they are kidding trying to get away with just shampooing the already old and smelly carpets? And put our babies and toddlers back in those dank rooms?
The carpets are STILL not dry and ready after two days. It's pretty obvious that they need to tear out and replace the damaged carpet and bring in an independent mold specialist to make sure that the leak did not spawn dangerous mildew that's going to give our kids and the employees problems.

The amateurish response by the director trying to patchwork a "cheap but expensive" solution to this emergency doesn't reflect well on this usually great daycare.