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Day care facility at Moffitt Cancer Center closing; here are some options for nervous parents

 

The new Child Development Center, scheduled to open in 2018, will be at Moffitt's McKinley campus just south of USF.

 [OCTAVIO JONES | Times]
The new Child Development Center, scheduled to open in 2018, will be at Moffitt's McKinley campus just south of USF. [OCTAVIO JONES | Times]
Published Oct. 5, 2016

TAMPA — Moffitt Cancer Center has announced it is shutting down its day care center at the end of the year while it builds a new and bigger facility, putting the families of roughly 90 children in limbo as they seek alternate arrangements.

Moffitt's Child Development Center, on the University of South Florida campus, has been providing child care services for more than 20 years. A new center, to be built at the McKinley campus one mile south of USF, will open in 2018.

After the existing facility closes, it will be razed for the construction of a new faculty and support services building.

Parents expressed concerns they would not be able to place their children in comparable care situations during the gap between the Moffitt shutdown and the opening of the new facility.

"This was one of the perks," said Kendall Gantous, mother of a 21-month-old who has been cared for at the center since he was 4 months old. "This is one of the reasons moms were so comfortable transitioning back to work."

Gantous, of Plant City, said the proximity —- a short walk from her job as a radiation therapist at Moffitt — was invaluable.

"I could see my son, I could nurse him when he was little, and continue to see him. I'm extremely upset with this decision."

Other parents worry that other centers will not be able to accommodate the common 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. nursing shifts at Moffitt. The existing center is open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

But an administrator said other sites operated by Bright Horizons, the child-care management company that runs the Moffitt facility, will expand hours to accommodate those families.

"We certainly understand and value the importance of our employees having child care on site, so as we looked forward in our strategic plan, having child care available was extremely important," said Yvette Tremonti, executive vice president and chief financial officer at the cancer center. "Upgrading and expanding made a lot of sense as our employee base continues to grow."

The other Bright Horizons centers are the USF Family Center (near the soon-to-close Moffitt center) at 3125 USF Banyan Circle; Bright Horizons at Hunter's Green, 18002 Hunter's Oak Court in Tampa; Bright Horizons at Tampa Palms, 5171 Cypress Preserve Drive in Tampa; and Bright Horizons at Seven Oaks, 3820 Windcrest Drive in Wesley Chapel.

"Because there will be a gap between the time that we vacate the current CDC site and the opening of the new McKinley campus location, Moffitt and Bright Horizons will be collaborating on a transition plan for you and your children," Moffitt said in a letter sent to parents.

They will be able to transfer their children to another Bright Horizons center while maintaining the same tuition rates, and will have the opportunity to enroll in the new center when it opens in 2018, the letter states.

Parents pay up to $1,250 a month for the service.

A handful of parents interviewed at the Moffitt site this week said they were worried about uprooting their children and uneasy about finding comparable care. None would speak on the record.

Gantous said she has enrolled her son with a different child care provider.

Moffitt has scheduled parent informational meetings Thursday from 12:00 noon to 1 p.m. and again from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in the Stabile Research Building Ted and Marty Couch Auditorium.

Moffitt was not specific about a closing date; spokeswoman Patty Kim said it could be January or could be pushed back to the spring or later to provide more transition time.

The new center will have a capacity for 150 children, up from 120.

Moffitt has been frequently cited for its family-friendly policies, including repeated listings on Working Mother magazine's best companies for women seeking the best work-life balance, and repeat appearances in the Tampa Bay Times' Top Workplace rankings.

About two-thirds of the families with children at the Child Development Center include a parent who works at Moffitt.

Contact Jerome R. Stockfisch at jstockfisch@tampabay.com.