Weeks after its request for $250,000 to support day care and prekindergarten for its 100-plus students was rejected by the East Hampton School District, representatives of the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center told the town board that around 40 percent of its annual budget, or $800,000, must be realized through fund-raising.
The center strives to keep its rates as affordable as possible, Tim Frazier, its director, and Joan Overlock, its development director, told the board on Tuesday. Founded in 1969 as a Head Start program of the Organization for Community Action at Boys and Girls Harbor, it was renamed the East Hampton Daycare Center in 1976 and, 20 years later, the East Hampton Daycare and Early Learning Center. It was renamed for Ms. Whitmore in 2013.
The center’s business model is unique, Mr. Frazier said: It is a nonprofit that depends on fund-raising to meet operational costs and keep fees accessible for all. While its fees are among the lowest in Suffolk County, one-third of its families still require financial assistance.
Many child care centers in New York State and across the country “don’t really provide an education program,” Mr. Frazier said. The center, on the other hand, “has always provided the educational element, along with childcare, in the years they’ve given service to the community.”
That the center provides both education and child care, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said, “pays huge individual and societal benefits over time.”
Every dollar invested in early childhood education can save $7 in the long term, by reducing future costs of remedial education, criminal justice, and welfare payments, Ms. Overlock told the board. While 85 percent of brain development comes before age 5, just 14 percent of public education dollars are spent on those early years, she said. “We need to begin to change that paradigm.”
In 2020, during the first five months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the center provided free child care for essential workers’ children between 18 months and 12 years, and opened a pop-up food pantry.
“Today, we welcome more than 100 children every day,” Ms. Overlock said, ranging in age from 18 months to 5 years. Sixty-five percent, she added, are from low or extremely low-income households, and nutrition is “a critical part of the program,” with two meals and two healthy snacks served daily. “For a lot of children, these are the most important meals of the day.” The center’s food pantry serves 45 families.
Since its inception, the center has invested more than $68 million in private money to care for and educate more than 5,000 residents of the town, among them Councilman David Lys. Its annual budget is $1.96 million. Tuition fees total $1.2 million.
“The town has been generous in helping us close that gap,” Ms. Overlock said. The center received a one-time infusion of federal money during the pandemic, but “we are going to be seeking more government funds.” Representatives are meeting with state officials “to understand how we can access more federal funding,” she said, but will always seek to raise money privately as well. “We want to keep our fees low, and are reaching out to find as many sources as we can to help us on that journey.”
The center will celebrate its founding year with a 1960s-theme fund-raiser on June 25. Tickets are available at ewecc.org.
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Note: A similar story published in the April 21 edition of The Star suggested the Eleanor Whitmore Center was experiencing financial instability, which its administration later clarified is not the case.