NORTHAMPTON — Smith College will close its Center for Early Childhood Education at Fort Hill next June, ending a century-long run for the childcare center and leaving families angry and dismayed.
The center opened in 1926 and enrolls about 80 children and infants in seven classrooms. Parents and staff learned Monday evening that it will close June 4, 2027, in an email from Anne-Marie Szmyt, the college’s vice president for human resources. Szmyt said the decision to close Fort Hill comes after a review of the college’s childcare benefits and operations, and is not a financial decision.
“This decision is not a reflection of the quality of education and care at Fort Hill, nor is it a budget-relieving measure,” Szmyt wrote. “Instead, Smith is expanding its overall childcare benefit to a model that provides flexible childcare benefits for employees with children up to age 12 across any licensed and accredited provider.”
Parents are skeptical of the college’s claim that the center’s closure is not a budgetary decision, with some noting that shuttering operations would not make sense otherwise. Others speculate it could serve as an anti-union measure, since the closure’s announcement coincided with staff’s recent efforts to unionize.
Caitlin Bunning, whose two children attend the college’s early childhood center, explained that although she and her wife are Smith alumnae, they currently have no affiliation with the college, making them ineligible for the alternative childcare benefits offered to Smith employees.
Bunning said that staff at the daycare center were in the process of organizing a union and were beginning to have “economic conversations with the college.” She noted that staff was only notified of the closure 20 minutes before the email went out to families.
“I was completely shocked, completely devastated — it felt like the closure was completely out of left field. I would have never thought an institution like this that has been around for 100 years would close so abruptly, and leaving all the families and all the staff in such a lurch,” Bunning said, describing the email from the college as being “vague” and abrupt. “It was on the eve of a union conversation, so it’s hard not to think that this might be a union-busting measure on the part of Smith.”
Early childhood educators voted unanimously to join the UAW Local 322 union two years ago. The jobs of about 30 staff members are at risk, according to teacher Rachel Connally, who serves on the union’s bargaining committee.
“Finding common ground and productivity has taken time and effort,” Connally said, describing a challenging first bargaining period between the union and the college. “Smith has communicated nothing that would confirm that this is directly about unionizing and being a union school, but they’ve also done nothing to lead us to believe it isn’t.”
Connally joined a crowd of about 50 teachers, parents and children for an informal meeting about the closure at the park benches outside the school Tuesday afternoon.
Malka Coburn, a teacher and bargaining committee member who has worked with the school for 13 years, said she felt “disappointed and betrayed” by the college’s decision.
“Were are in the process of bargaining for our first contract. We’ve been bargaining our first contract for just over a year and a half at this point,” Coburn said. “Negotiations have been slow. It just doesn’t feel like they want to work with us.”
In an email to the Gazette, Smith College spokesperson Barbara Solow explained the new childcare benefits program for staff, but did not respond to questions about the closure’s alleged link to union action.
“Following a review of the College’s childcare benefits and operations, Smith College is significantly expanding its childcare benefit to cover employees with children ages 0–12 enrolled in any licensed and accredited childcare provider, including summer programs and afterschool care,” she wrote. “Under the new program, benefit-eligible employees will have the freedom to choose licensed and accredited childcare aligned with their schedules, or tailored to their specific needs.”
Families not employed by the college would not be eligible for the childcare benefits.
Other parents, such as Brendan O’Connor, whose son is in his last year at the center, shared Bunning’s skepticism of the college’s assertion that the early childhood center’s closure is not a budgetary decision.
O’Connor said although he will not be as affected as other parents, given his son’s impending departure from the daycare, he understands how difficult it can be to find childcare in the region.
“I don’t [believe that this wasn’t a budgetary decision]. I don’t know what the issues are, but that obviously has to be part of it. I think from their perspective, there’s questions about: Is it better to subsidize people to get their own childcare or to have a provider already? Maybe there’s cost differences. I don’t know,” O’Connor said. “Some people speculate they’re doing this in part as a response to unionization by the teachers at Fort Hill … it’s hard to trust what’s coming from Smith administration.”
O’Connor added that with waitlists for nearby childcare enrollment backed up for months, if not years, the preschool’s closure would be “gutting” to parents throughout the region who are seeking childcare, especially infant or toddler education.
“I’m not affiliated with Smith, but I’ve seen when faculty, young professors, move to an area, they have lots of employees who move to Smith in the area from faraway regions. They live here without family nearby, they come from faraway countries, so having to scramble to find childcare is yet another thing that might makes life very hard for those folks,” he said. “Smith has developed this available thing, and if it’s gone, it’s going to be much harder for all of them.”
Another parent, Kevin Huant, echoed these comments, noting that the preschool’s closure was “devastating” and felt like a “gut punch” given the amount of time he and his wife spent in search of a preschool.
When Marcella Jewell dropped her 3-year-old son off at the center Tuesday morning, she said teachers, who had been made aware of the closure at roughly the same time as families, were equally devastated by the news.
“We’re all just really heartbroken,” Jewell said. “The teachers were crying when we were dropping off the kids … I can’t imagine that it’s not financially motivated, which is unfortunate because I’m pretty sure that Smith is a tax-exempt institution, so they have a responsibility to give back to the community because of that status, and this is just going to drastically impact so many working families.”
The college invited parents to an informational forum on the daycare’s closure slated for Monday, Oct. 26, at 6 p.m. on Zoom. Szmyt and center Director Jen Godlesky will host the forum.
“We are profoundly grateful for the trust you place in Fort Hill,” Szmyt wrote. “We are committed to communicating with you throughout this transition with transparency, care, and respect while working closely with union leadership and Smith staff members.”
