Copyright Bangor Daily News
BAR HARBOR, Maine — It broke ground in 2022; it opened in January 2024, and now approximately two years later, the child care facility at the Jackson Laboratory, funded partially by state and federal grants, is closing as of Dec. 31, 2025. “The center currently has 13 children enrolled. At its peak, there were 24 children enrolled. The capacity of the center is 53 children,” Downeast Family YMCA Executive Director Matthew Montgomery said Thursday. Montgomery’s announcement arrived in the email inboxes of parents and caregivers at approximately 5 p.m., Wednesday, informing them that they would have to find new child care by the start of the new year. “The decision was not made lightly,” Montgomery wrote. His statements were echoed in a press release that Downeast Family YMCA sent out on Thursday afternoon. “This was not an easy decision,” said Matt Boles, the YMCA’s board chair. “Knowing how vital safe and reliable child care is to families, the board conducted an extensive review of the center’s operations and finances in the hope of finding an alternative. Unfortunately, despite every effort from both organizations, the combination of declining enrollment and staffing challenges has made it impossible to sustain operations beyond this year.” The $4.5 million facility was built by the lab, but was leased and run by the Downeast Family YMCA, which already works with the lab at a child care facility on the Beechland Road in Ellsworth. Montgomery said Friday that the goal was to have a break-even budget by 2026. “However, based on current trends, this was not attainable,” Montgomery said. “The Jackson Laboratory has been an exceptional partner throughout this process. Beyond establishing the facility, JAX provided a very favorable lease, covered the full cost of construction, and contributed operational and logistical assistance to help maintain stability, including efforts to reduce overhead costs, support recruitment, and facilitate philanthropic contributions. Even with this level of backing, the financial gap continued to grow.” A rate increase in February was meant to offset rising costs. “Even with that adjustment, the operational expenses and limited fundraising ability on Mount Desert Island (which falls outside our YMCA’s service area) made long-term sustainability impossible,” Montgomery said. The current enrollment of 13 children is primarily due to staffing limitations rather than a lack of applicants, Montgomery said. With Jackson Laboratory, he said, Downeast Family YMCA “explored every possible avenue to make the center financially viable. Unfortunately, the losses year-to-date are greater than what was budgeted and are not sustainable for the organization.” In the Wednesday email, Montgomery wrote, “Both organizations exhausted every possible effort to keep the center open, exploring a range of options to address challenges with declining enrollment and staffing. Despite these extensive efforts, it has become clear that continuing operations is not sustainable.” The child care center was meant to help families find a safe place for 50 infants and toddlers from local families. Montgomery offered families child care options at the YMCA’s two centers in Ellsworth. “We are also working with childcare centers located on MDI, including the MDI YMCA and Kids Korner (sic Kids’ Corner), for families who wish to have their care remain on the island,” Montgomery wrote in the email. According to the state, there are 10 licensed day cares and child care centers on Mount Desert Island. Those were not listed as options. “While this outcome is heartbreaking, we’re proud that every family affected will have continuity of care through one of our partner centers,” Montgomery said. A Jackson Laboratory spokesperson said late Thursday that it acknowledges the YMCA’s decision. “This outcome reflects the broader challenges currently facing childcare providers nationwide. Across the country, centers are navigating a difficult environment shaped by rising operational costs, staffing shortages, and the expiration of federal and state relief funding. Despite efforts by [Downeast Family YMCA] to address these challenges, including expanded recruitment and operational adjustments, continuing operations proved unsustainable,” the lab stated. The lab also said that it hopes to continue hosting child care at the new facility though the Ellsworth-based YMCA will no longer operate it. “JAX remains committed to supporting families during this transition and will initiate a process to identify a new operator for the center. [Downeast Family YMCA] has already coordinated with childcare providers across the region to ensure that all affected families have access to alternative care options,” the lab said. “JAX appreciates the dedication of the Island of Imagination staff and the partnership with [Downeast Family YMCA] in addressing an important community need.” Where will they go? The worry is that the children are not only leaving a space that they’ve become used to, but also whether or not their families will be able to find local child care. Montgomery and Jackson Laboratory have both stressed that they are focused on finding care for the children who currently go to the Bar Harbor campus. “Both organizations are extremely committed to ensuring uninterrupted care for the families affected,” Montgomery said in the press release, Thursday. “We have identified care within our existing YMCA centers in Ellsworth and are working closely with our partners at the Mount Desert Island YMCA and Kids’ Korner (sic Corner) to ensure that every child has a seamless transition.” Kids’ Corner, one local child care provider Montgomery mentioned as a possibility for placements, said it is committed to helping the families as much as they can. “We are in the midst of trying to absorb as many of their kids as we possibly will be able to. We actually were quite full, but I just had a record number of teachers apply so I now have four new teachers — 10 total now so we are starting to feel pre-pandemic,” Kids’ Corner Executive Director Lori Krupke said, Wednesday night. The non-profit center, which is celebrating its 35th year, has focused on staff retention even during difficult years such as during the COVID pandemic. “We have an amazingly strong team at [Kids’ Corner] right now, so I see that we will be able to expand our enrollment to help absorb the families that found themselves needing care due to the Lab’s closure of their faculty,” Krupke said. “The key to recruiting is offering a strong program that has their compensation at a livable level. We want them to feel like the professionals that they are, indeed. Their work is vital to the health of a community. We must make that investment now for not just their future success but our own.” Krupke also thinks that part of the organization’s long success is about how its board, staff, and community celebrate each other and the students. “The reason we are flourishing is because the board of directors 100% support my vision to keep the teachers’ needs number one,” she said on Thursday morning. “Our whole focus is what can we do to assure the teachers have what they need to do their job well and make this their profession.” MDI YMCA Chief Executive Officer Ann Tikkanen said that all impacted families are welcome to contact her or Chief Operations Officer Maegan Haney about their child and potential placement at the Y, which is located on Park Street in Bar Harbor. “At the MDI YMCA we are working closely with the childcare team at JAX and encouraging all families of preschool age children to come visit us down the road from JAX at 21 Park Street,” Tikkanen said. “We constructed a dedicated space for our preschool classroom and we are committed to accepting as many preschoolers as need the care. We have an island-based staff as well as provide housing for some of our employees.” The Y offers reduced costs for program fees to everyone, based upon need. “We look forward to meeting new children and families,” Tikkanen said. “The MDI YMCA campus provides many additional opportunities and activities as part of our curriculum-based program for all preschoolers such as swim classes, trips to the library, sports, and much more.” Child care shifts and supports That staff support Krupke speaks about is also occurring on a state level for a profession that often doesn’t pay a livable wage. The 2024 median pay for child care workers across the country was $32,050 per year, or $15.41 per hour. In Maine, the Maine Early Childhood Workforce Salary Supplement System, according to the state’s site, “assists eligible childcare providers in paying competitive salaries to address challenges in the childcare workforce and ensure access to affordable, high-quality childcare options for Maine families.” Salary tiers have monthly supplements ranging from $240 to $540 a month. Those tiers are determined by early child care registry levels. Staff-to-child ratios in Maine are dependent on the age of the children. Maine has more than 1,500 child care providers. The state lists 10 child care choices on Mount Desert Island. Many do not have openings for different ages. Infant care is in high demand. ”Over the past year, we saw the preschool waitlist decline significantly, even as infant demand remained steady,” Montgomery said. “However, because infant care is the most staffing- and cost-intensive program due to strict state ratio requirements, expanding that age group would not have improved our financial outlook. Most successful childcare programs rely on strong preschool and afterschool enrollments, and many do not operate infant care for this reason.” A past inspection in December 2024 by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services said that the center met all inspection points except that the facility needed to record “actual hours worked and break times in which child care staff is not in a caregiving capacity and are not counted in the staff-to-child ratio.” In November 2024, according to a report by licensing specialist Elizabeth Burnham, the facility had left two children ages three and four unsupervised “in a classroom for four and a half minutes while a childcare staff member went down the hall. The program notified the parents of the children involved, documented the incident, and notified the department that the incident had occurred.” It is the only incident on record at the facility and was self-reported. According to a press release from the lab at the time of the center’s opening, “The $4.5 million center was supported by a $250,000 grant from the Maine Child Care Infrastructure Grant Program, part of a $15 million state investment into the construction or expansion of workforce childcare programs.” The grant program was part of an April 2022 supplemental budget bill that reallocated more than $5 million in early childhood funds to child care programs’ renovation, creation, or expansion. Montgomery said Friday that the grant does not need to be returned to the state. In 2019, the lab had surveyed its employees and said that lack of child care was a major need. An earlier plan involving the MDI YMCA did not work out. “This project has been underway since 2018. We saw a need and were fortunate to design and see this new center through to fruition, partnering with [Downeast Family YMCA],” Jackson Laboratory former Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer S. Catherine Longley had said. “Childcare resources on MDI are very limited and we view this project as an investment in our employees and their families today and a critical recruitment and retention tool. This center will provide quality child care for families at JAX and in our community for many years to come.” Longley had stressed that making child care available and providing homes for people are key to the success of small and large businesses in the Mount Desert Island area. The new facility could host up to 50 children and she had said they expect to hit those numbers by January 2025. Those 50 spaces had increased the availability of child care on Mount Desert Island by 30 percent. Montgomery praised the center’s staff for their dedication. “We are extremely proud of the work that our staff has done, the care they have provided, and the impact they’ve had on our community,” he said. “The closure of the center does not diminish the positive, life-changing difference the Island of Imagination has made for children and families.”
