After 55 years of serving local families, the Rosa Lee Young Childhood Center, in Rockville Centre, may soon close, as financial pressures, declining enrollment and shifting early-education options converge to threaten the child-care provider.
The center currently serves 21 children and has a staff of 13, but Executive Director Christina Laface said that it has struggled to recover financially since the coronavirus pandemic.
“As far as income, we’ve been struggling since Covid,” Laface said.
Lisa Mack, president of the center’s board of trustees, said it has been caught in a difficult cycle: not enough enrollment to cover costs, and not enough staffing capacity to expand when demand briefly increased.
“We were not getting the enrollment we needed to stay in the black,” Mack said, “and we were not getting the teachers we needed when we had the students interested.”
A major factor has been the Rockville Centre School District’s expansion of its universal pre-kindergarten program, which offers families a free alternative to private early-childhood care. The shift, Laface said, resulted in a significant drop in enrollment.
She described the district’s pre-K expansion as a “tremendous hit,” noting that families increasingly opted for the free program over tuition-based care that costs nearly $2,000 per month per child at Rosa Lee Young.
The financial gap made participation in the center’s program unfeasible for many parents even when the center explored becoming a universal pre-K provider itself. Laface said that the school district’s reimbursement rates — previously about $5,700 per child annually, and later proposed to increase to roughly $10,000 — still fell far short of covering operating costs and teacher salaries.
“It wasn’t even close to what we could offer,” Mack said. “And we could not pay our teachers.”
In an emailed statement, school district Superintendent Matthew Gaven said the district has been focused on expanding access to early-childhood education.
“The district has been working to expand our state funded UPK program so that as many students as possible could attend free full day UPK,” Gaven wrote, noting that expansion efforts included meetings with Rosa Lee Young representatives, though “ultimately, the proposal of partnership did not work for both parties.”
At the same time, the center faced rising operational costs and significant infrastructure needs. Roughly $120,000 in required upgrades — including fire alarm, sprinkler and air conditioning system improvements — further strained finances.
“These were things that needed to be done,” Laface said. “But it took away that cushion that we’d always had.”
The financial strain came to a head in mid-April, when families received sudden notice that the center could close within weeks. The announcement was delivered in letters written by Mack and board Treasurer Lori Drucker and placed in children’s mailboxes on April 17.
“Basically, all the parents went into panic mode,” one parent, Christine Sloan, recalled.
Through rapid organizing, fundraising and appeals to local officials, families were able to extend operations through June 26, though the center’s long-term survival remains uncertain.
Sloan, who has two children enrolled, helped circulate a widely shared Facebook message calling attention to the crisis and urging community support. “We want to focus on what we can do to save Rosa Lee Young, or at least make a better transition for the children and the staff,” she said.
Parent Meghan Krasula, whose 4-year-old daughter, Brianna, has attended since 2024, said the center has played a major role in her development.
“They really took the time and care with her to help her with that transition,” Krasula said. “She’s just really grown and blossomed.”
A follow-up meeting among parents, staff and the board of trustees, which was described as “emotional” on all sides, focused on keeping the center open through the end of the school year. Parents and staff mobilized quickly to raise funds. A GoFundMe campaign had collected nearly $12,000 of its $18,000 goal as of press time, though organizers estimated that as much as $25,000 is needed to cover salaries, insurance and utilities through June.
Community fundraisers have also been scheduled, including a class at That’s Hot Pilates on May 17 and a bingo event on June 5 at the St. Agnes Parish Center.
“I had to find a way to help Rosa Lee Young fundraise enough money so that they could pay their staff until June 26,” said parent and Pilates teacher Michelle McDonald, who organized that fundraiser.
McDonald also criticized the response of the center’s leadership to the crisis, saying that parents and staff have carried much of the effort to keep it open. “It didn’t seem like the board really wanted to fight,” she said.
Mack rejected that characterization. “That's just ridiculous,” she exclaimed. “We have been fighting to try to get enrollment and talented teachers for months and months and months. And we were trying to keep the center open.”
Amid the uncertainty, Mack said that Mayor Francis X. Murray had stepped in personally to assist, paying overdue electric bills and committing additional support to help the center remain open through June.
“He said, ‘We don’t have the village funds for it, but I will pay for it out of my own pocket,’” Mack said.
Even with that assistance, Laface said, the core issues remain unresolved.
“All the fundraising in the world is not going to raise my enrollment,” she said. “All the fundraising in the world is not going to give me more staff.”
As the June 26 date approaches, Laface, who has worked at the center for 20 years and whose own child attends, said the focus has shifted toward making the remaining weeks meaningful for children, families and staff.
“Let’s just make the best of it and enjoy each other while we still have each other,” she said.
