Orange County NC Website
4 <br /> 1 :i'_,130 <br /> i will eventually have to refuse to accept Title XX children. <br /> Ms. Mary Bridges is. the Director of a center where the rate increases <br /> were frozen by the Board of Social Services and she said her center was <br /> having a very difficult time meeting its financial obligations. Her <br /> staff had deferred drawing its salary until funds came in. She said her <br /> fee paying clients were paying in advance for child care and Title XX <br /> funds arrived in the middle or end of the month. She stated that this 1 <br /> method of Title XX payment caused a real problem with "cash flow." <br /> Ms. Janet Clement said the Chapel Hill Day Care Center does not take <br /> Title XX children in order to make 'a profit. She has 74 children in her . <br /> center and only 10 are receiving Title XX assistance. If 9 more children <br /> i. <br /> whom she is sure are Title XX eligible were receiving aid her center's <br /> income would rise by $547 a month. Ms. Clement, Director of the above <br /> named center, addressed several items: 1) the number of .children in day <br /> care centers in Orange County declined during the past year; 2) the <br /> $94,000 surplus is there because the State of North Carolina has made <br /> day care a priority; 3) she urged the Board to compare the number of child- <br /> 1 ren served by day care with the number of persons served by Chore Services, <br /> challenging Mr. Ward's statement that the Chore Service and Day Care pro- <br /> grams need to be balanced; 4) she said there are no surplus funds in day <br /> care as long as 160 children are on the waiting list for assistance. <br /> Voicing her concern over the long range implications of this funding <br /> action, Ms. Clement said centers are expensive to operate and may, in <br /> order to cut costs, drop their State Certification. The inevitable result <br /> of this action would be segregation by race and income in various centers, <br /> i.e., only those center receiving Title XX funds would take low income <br /> children. <br /> Ms.Patsy Barbee of the Bi City Day Care Center said without the rate <br /> increase due next month her center will have a $4,800 deficit. <br /> Mr. Thomas Lutten, saying that he had looked for diversity when he placed <br /> his child in a day care center, echoed Ms. Clement's concern over the long <br /> range implications for day care centers. He said he felt the Chore Services <br /> Budget had been too dependent on State Reallocation funding. <br /> f The Board directed Ms. Battern and the Social Services Department to work <br />