WEST DOVER — Families are upset by a recent change that will prioritize kids of employees for placements at Mount Snow Child Care and leave other parents with a limited choice of local options.
Beginning Nov. 17, the program will transition to what a resort official called "an employee-first enrollment model."
"This decision was not made lightly and reflects our commitment to supporting our staff and their families with reliable, high-quality and affordable care," said Brian Donovan, director of skier services. "Families who are not active Mount Snow employees are still welcome to apply for care but will be placed on a waitlist and notified if space becomes available. We are incredibly grateful to all the families who have been part of Mount Snow Child Care.”
The new model is anticipated by the resort to affect fewer than 25 families in the community.
In an open letter to executives at Mount Snow's parent company Vail Resorts, Eamon Duane expressed "deep disbelief" at the new enrollment model.
"This decision is driving a deep wedge between your organization and the local community," wrote Duane, a parent of two at the daycare. "This daycare has been around for generations, and it is a place the community cherishes."
Duane said the decision is leaving "dozens of local families scrambling to find alternatives where few lie."
"The look on the daycare staff after the news was devastating after knowing the work and love they put into their jobs," Duane wrote. "Our children love going to school and growing up with local friends in a safe and supportive environment."
Another parent with two children in the program described families being "devastated."
"Wilmington and the surrounding area have very few daycare options," the parent told the Reformer. "I've reached out to multiple daycares in the general area. They either do not have any openings or cannot take one or both my kids full time."
With only six weeks notice given about the change in policy, the parent described having "little choice but to leave my job."
"My husband is finishing chemotherapy and has been on medical leave, so we’ve been surviving on one income already," the parent said. "Losing child care could mean living on one income for another year, which we may not be able to manage."
The parent said the move affects not just families but "the broader community."
"I work in health care for a nonprofit that already struggles with staffing shortages," the parent said. "I work directly with Medicare and Medicaid patients in Windham County. Forcing local parents out of work only deepens those challenges."
The parent said the decision also means the loss of "a community of amazing teachers, friends and parents."
"My toddler is going to be absolutely devastated he will be separated from the friends he has had since he was 4 months old," she said.
Rachel Olstein Kaplan of Wilmington said she recently moved to Wilmington and wanted to give her 4-year-old stability.
"It's a phenomenal program," she said of Mount Snow Child Care. "We heard only good things about it. We could have sent him to pre-k but chose to keep him at Mount Snow just because it's a such a great program and we wanted to give him continuity."
Olstein Kaplan said the program also provided longer hours of care, which others do not. She suggested the decision should have been announced in May or June rather than Nov. 2, or a town hall could have been organized to brainstorm alternative plans that would allow families to stay in the program.
Families received a "kind of cryptic" email about the change, Olstein Kaplan said, and employees were as "equally taken by surprise" when they found out the same day.
"The mountain, for better or worse, is the heart and soul — I don't know about the soul — but it's the heart of the economy here," she said, adding that residents in the Deerfield Valley may not work at the resort but their jobs are connected in some way.
