Last night, FCC President Annesa Payne Cheek, announced to 19 employees and 50 families with 69 children enrolled, that effective May 16, 2025, the Carl and Norma Miller Children’s Center will permanently close after 30 years of service to the College and community. Currently the Center’s parent patrons include 20 FCC student-parents, 12 FCC employee-parents and 18 parents who are members of the general community.
Last Spring, a plan was developed and shared with employees and parent patrons of the Center, that from May-Aug 2025, necessary heating/ventilation/air-conditioning (HVAC) upgrades and minor renovations would be performed for the building. However, increasing fiscal pressures at both the state, local, and now federal levels, coupled with the urgent need to prioritize mission-critical areas in the College, led to the difficult realization that the Center’s ongoing financial losses could no longer be sustained by the College.
From FY20 through FY24, the net income loss of the Children’s Center totaled $1.3M. And if including the FY23-FY24 Frederick County subsidy of $250K provided “to optimize student utilization of the Children’s Center, with the intent to make quality, on-site childcare more affordable, as well as to remove traditional barriers to FCC enrollment and course completion for student parents”, the net income loss still exceeded $1M.
Childcare services are an auxiliary unit of community colleges, intended to be financially self-supporting. For this reason, many colleges are unable to sustain such operations as a sole owner-operator. Additionally, the Children’s Center, serving infants through age 4, has never operated at the full capacity of 83 children, thus revenues are not sufficient to cover expenses.
The FCC Board of Trustees’
Ends Policy acknowledges that the College’s focus is to provide all Frederick County residents and others who choose to enroll at the College, with the education, workforce preparation skills, abilities, and personal growth necessary to succeed in an increasingly interconnected world, at a cost that demonstrates the prudent use of the College’s available resources. “This is the core business of FCC”, said President Cheek. She continued, “And in today’s financially austere environment at the federal, state, and local levels, any operation that sustains repeated financial loss must be critically evaluated. I continue to articulate the need for FCC employees to embrace decision-making informed by data and evidence, and though challenging, the evidence that informed this decision was clear.”
Board of Trustees Chair Ted Luck acknowledged, “The Board delegates operational matters of the College to the President and we support President Cheek's decision on the closure of the Children's Center.”
Looking ahead, the Children’s Center building, constructed in 1994 with an expansion in 1997, will be repurposed to support workforce training, starting in the Fall Semester of 2025. The facility will house FCC’s Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), Phlebotomy, and Dental programs—currently located on the Monroe campus. President Cheek noted, “This strategic move will not only increase cohort sizes in these high-demand fields but will also foster stronger collaboration and synergy between these programs and those in the state-of-the-art Linganore Hall healthcare training facility on the Opossumtown campus.” She continued, “The vacated space at the Monroe campus will be redesigned to meet the evolving workforce training needs of Frederick County, ensuring we continue to respond to local demand.”
While childcare remains a pressing issue across the country and for many in the Frederick County communities, including the College’s student- parents, current realities dictate the prioritization of activities that more directly align with the College’s core mission. Recognizing this, various community resource organizations and other childhood education centers are connecting with the College to offer empathy and support to employees for employment and the families for childcare services after May 16
th. “While the financial realities are disappointing, we are tremendously grateful for the dedicated staff who have made the Children’s Center a cornerstone of our campus community over the years”, said Fred Hockenberry, FCC’s Executive Director of Auxiliaries, Procurement, and Special Projects.
FCC is moving forward with a future-ready mindset, despite the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of today’s environment. The rising demand for healthcare services and other sector priorities in our community underscores the urgent need for well-trained professionals. In response, the College is leveraging its resources and expertise to not only meet the current workforce needs but to position itself for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. This is the collective mission of FCC, to ensure the community has access to needed skilled professionals, and students receive the education and training necessary to more equitably participate in our society, economy, and democracy.