Update: Boerum Hill Day Care Centers Fight to Stay Open

Update, 9:40 p.m. Daniel Rubenstein, Executive Director of Brooklyn Prospect Charter School has released a statement.

"Brooklyn Prospect Charter School is caught in the middle of an unfortunate battle between our community leaders and City Hall, which has defunded several daycare programs in the district. We are not taking space away from anyone. We have been forced to lease private space — at considerable expense — because our current location at Sunset Park High School is no longer tenable. We too agree that our community needs affordable daycare and that's why we included a provision in our lease that if the city restores funding to the programs in question, we will not move into that space."

Update, 9 p.m. The Association for Children's Services has granted Strong Place and Bethel Baptist a one week extension, according to Councilmember Steve Levin.

"I'd like to thank Commissioner Mattingly and his staff at ACS for their willingness to let Strong Place and Bethel Baptist stay open for another week. I am hopeful that we can find a permanent solution over the next week that will allow these childcare centers to continue to serve the community for at least another year," said Levin.

Strong Place and Bethel Baptist day care centers have been due to cuts in the city budget both last year and this year.

The Brooklyn Prospect Charter School, while waiting for its permanent home to be built, .

In both cases, it's the children who lose.

"What do we want?"

"Day care!"

"When do we want it?

"Now!"

That chant echoed across the Gowanus Houses and up and down Hoyt Street Friday morning, as parents, teachers and elected officials rallied in front of Strong Place and Bethel Baptist.

The directors of the day care centers, which operate year-round, found out on Wednesday that their home for decades would be rented to the Brooklyn Prospect Charter School, a new middle school that has been co-located at Sunset Park High School for the past year, while waiting for its permanent home, next to on Third Avenue, to be built.

While it has been known that the centers were threatened with closure under the Mayor's budget, the centers thought they had until June 30, and were told they would likely see the funding restored, as it had been last year. When they found out on Wednesday that Friday was their last day in operation, they panicked, said Bethel Day Care Center Director Jean Morris.

"This is devastating," said Morris. "What about the parents that have to work? It's now a choice between a job and finding a safe space for their kids."

Strong Place and Bethel serve approximately 100 children.

Councilmember Steve Levin told the large crowd that he "wasn't taking this lying down."

"We're here to stand up for our day care centers. To stand up against what the city has done, and what Brooklyn Prospect Charter has done," he said over the megaphone, his voice cracking.

"I'm going to be fighting every minute of today to make sure your kids have a place to go Monday," he added.

Brooklyn Prospect Charter School Executive Director Dan Rubenstein declined to comment.

"What we're doing is saying the city doesn't care about these kids and these families," said Assemblywoman Joan Millman, who was there to show support for her constituents and Levin, though as a state representative, she doesn't have the authority to make a tangible difference.

"Even if we have to go to jail, we'll stand and block the doorway," she added, to loud applause.

(Millman is no stranger to protest that ends in arrest. When a Cobble Hill firehouse was threatened with closure in 2003, she was arrested, along with Steve Buscemi and others, while protesting.)

For the parents, there are little to no options for their kids, especially on such short notice.

"What am I going to do? I have to work. My daughter works and goes to school," said Tonya White, who's grandson Jakai Williams, 2, attends Bethel. "It's hard for all of us."

Another parent, Daneen Stone, called the closing of the centers to make way for a charter school an "injustice."

"The system is not designed to make people self-sufficient," said Stone, who is working hard to find a job and paying for the day care with her unemployment funds. "It's designed to keep people down."

Strong Place Day Care Center Director Lorraine Pennisi echoed that thought.

"These parents want work not welfare," she said over the megaphone in between cries to "Keep Hope Alive!"

The message to keep hope alive was literal but also symbolic. Hope Reichbach was communications director to Councilmember Steve Levin until her at the end of April. Reichbach fought tirelessly to keep both day care centers open, both last year and this year. Her mother, Ellen Meyers, was in attendance at the rally.

"My child fought on behalf of your children... We're going to keep hope alive, keep the center alive," she said. "I'm not Hope, but Hope loved you."