University of Kansas Chancellor Doug Girod said the closure of Hilltop Child Development Center is final, but the university is putting together a work group of faculty and staff to evaluate “practical long-term childcare solutions.”
According to an email from KU Provost Arash Mafi to KU students and staff, the group’s goal is to identify ways to help KU families in the short term, while simultaneously developing a long-term approach to childcare access for the KU community.
The university’s longtime campus childcare center will close at the end of this month, as long as it can maintain staffing and licensure until then.
Membership in the group will be announced in the coming weeks, according to the email, but will include faculty and staff “with relevant expertise.”
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“Thank you to those who have shared concerns and suggestions,” Mafi said in the email. “We will keep the campus community informed as this work moves forward.”
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The decision to form a work group comes after parents, including many KU faculty, staff and students, expressed their concerns about how losing childcare could impact their jobs and studies.
Girod asked Mafi to form the work group, saying the decision to close the center — which is final — was not made lightly.
“I recognize the significant disruption the closure will create for students, faculty, and staff who rely on these childcare services, particularly given the limited time families have to secure alternative arrangements,” he said in an email to Mafi.
Tiffany González is a professor in the history department at KU and parent of a Hilltop student.
She said she would have rather seen parents from all sorts of backgrounds included in the group, not just faculty and staff. She also said the childcare center’s staff should have a voice.
She said there were still unanswered questions she hoped the work group would add clarity to: Will KU try to open a different childcare center? What will they do with the buildings Hilltop has occupied?
She said she was disappointed in Girod’s statement that the closure was final.
“This seems very top down,” González said. “And my thinking has always been about, you know, grassroots level upward, because if that’s going to help the community, then it should be the community itself that creates a plan for themselves.”
Parents plan job fair for Hilltop staff
A job fair Tuesday evening will allow staff members at Hilltop to meet other potential employers.
Organized by Hilltop parents, it will feature representatives from La Petite, Raintree Montessori, Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence, Lawrence Public Schools and more.
The fair will also provide a meal from Hazel’s Hut food truck, goodie bags that include donations from local businesses, and dogs from Loving Paws Animal Therapy.
The fair will run from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6 at the Community Children’s Center Family Resource Center, 346 Maine St.
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), staff reporter, has worked with The Lawrence Times since April 2022. He can be reached at [email protected].
Read his complete bio at this link. Read more of his work for the Times at this link.
More coverage of Hilltop Child Development Center:
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence TimesHilltop closure is final, chancellor says, but work group will seek childcare solutions
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