Dear HCCC families, community members and friends,

The Haxtun Community Childcare Center Board of Directors and our staff have been faced with numerous challenges over the last several weeks. We felt as a Board, that we needed to address our families and community about what has been going on.

Our previous director had allegations brought against her regarding two of HCCC’s currently enrolled children. An investigation was performed and the allegations were founded by the Haxtun Police Department, the Phillips County Child Protective Services and most recently, State Licensing. At that time, the previous director was given orders to not be on the Center’s property while children were in the building. At that time, the Board of Directors stepped in to take control of the center. The previous director was still allowed to be at the center before or after its operating hours.

Upon inspection of the building, the Board witnessed several instances of neglect within the building. The most major was water damage in the infant and toddler room from the HVAC units that are housed in the attic. The units have been serviced and repaired. The HVAC system is fully functional in the three classrooms but isn’t functional in the front of the building. It has been determined that a new condenser unit will need to be purchased. The water damage has been repaired in the infant and toddler rooms. The water heater was heavily marked with calcium and rust. We have contacted a local contractor and the unit is in the process of being repaired. The building needed a deep scrubbing and we are slowly making our way thru each room.

Our State Licensing Agent and her supervisor visited for our annual inspection on Tuesday, Sept. 21. Upon their inspection, we learned that our staff was missing various components that are required to be either a Director, Lead teacher or Aide. We also found several incidents of fraudulent activity from the previous director. We were left with no other option than to shut the center down for a day and to limit the number of children that we were allowed to care for. Upon these findings, the previous director submitted her resignation and the board unanimously agreed to make the resignation immediate. We have held several interviews and have some great applicants to choose from.

Moving forward, we are having all of our attending families re-enroll their children. We are installing cameras in each of the three classrooms, which will be used for internal review and to protect both our attending children and our staff. We will be implementing a new billing and payment program. We are currently working on redoing both the parent handbook and the employee handbook. A founding board member called in a favor and found an auditor to perform a forensic audit pro Bono!

Our State Licensing agents have been fantastic and have agreed to “hold our hands” as we navigate through the coming months. Most importantly, we, as a board, have learned that we can’t always believe in the goodness of everyone. We will be an integral part of the Center’s daily operations moving forward.

Please watch for an invitation to an open house/staff meet and greet happening in the coming months. We realize the importance of HCCC for our community and the surrounding communities. Please know that we are working very diligently to correct the issues and to return HCCC to the great center that it was in previous years.

Sincerely,

The HCCC Board of Directors

Sara Firme, President

Brandi McConnell, Vice President

Danielle Fox, Treasurer

Sara Huss, Secretary

Ashlea Quigley, Member

Tiffany Maelzer, Member

Meredith Sparks, Member