City parking renovation leads to closure of Honolulu child care facility

Oahu could be losing 264 coveted child care seats as Seagull Schools faces closure after the city notified the organization that it would not renew its lease at the early childhood education center above the parking structure on the Frank Fasi Municipal Center Grounds.

Seagull Schools has operated at its location for the past 36 years. However, due to much-needed repairs on the parking structure on which the school sits, the city was unable to renew its lease, which ends Aug. 31.

Seagull Schools prioritizes children of city and county employees. Currently, 60 children of city workers attend the school, and there are 50 on a wait-list for student spots at the downtown location.

Seagull Schools was officially notified about the city’s decision Thursday and sent a letter home to families Monday explaining the situation.

“We cannot begin to tell you how heartbroken we are over the closure of our school,” wrote Seagull Schools CEO Megan McCorriston.

“We are expecting further information from the city regarding this situation in the next few months, including the possible alternative locations in town for relocation.”

While the city is working with Seagull Schools to find another location, Department of Design and Construction Director Alex Kozlov was not optimistic it could be secured by the August deadline.

“It’s just a tight time frame, but we are looking like crazy,” he said.

“It’s in everybody’s best interest, for them, for us … to find them a place to go.”

Even if the city was able to find a suitable property for the facility, it would have to go through the formal procurement process, which includes seeking bids for the property from organizations.

That means Seagull Schools would have to compete with others for the spot.

This process still would happen even after the renovation on the parking garage is completed in two to three years after the start of construction.

“The important thing here is, is that we can’t play favorites,” Kozlov said.

Kozlov said he did have an informal conversation with Seagull Schools in June, notifying it that the city likely would not be able to renew the lease.

The potential loss of Seagull Schools would further exacerbate the shortage of child care on Oahu, which has only continued to worsen, said Kathleen Algire, director of early learning and health policy at Hawaii Children’s Action Network.

“We’re very concerned about what the impact to the families are going to be, also to the workforce, to the child care workers and early childhood educators,” she said.

“We’re kind of disappointed because right now it doesn’t look like the city has space for them. It doesn’t have a plan to help move the facility so that the families could maintain enrollment in a program.”

Algire was also concerned about the potential loss in the already sparse workforce for early childhood education providers.

Her organization’s 2017 report on child care found that there were enough seats for only 24% of the state’s young children.

Michelle Takai is a single mother of two 4-year-old twins who currently attend Seagull. She is frantically looking for a place for her children if Seagull closes, but it is already difficult.

“I have been on the phone since (Monday) afternoon. … I’ve got two of them and work full time, so it’s only me,” she said.

“I’ve already been in touch with, I would say, probably about five or six other schools to see if they are still accepting applications. Some of them, the application period has ended, they’re pretty much nearing the end of their acceptance period, so it’s been extremely stressful.”

While campaigning, Mayor Rick Blangiardi told the nonprofit Commit to Keiki that he would make early childhood education a priority by employing a worker focused solely on the issue.

The city is still working to hire that position as soon as possible, said a city spokesperson.

“The closure of a high- quality child care provider in our community is disheartening since we have already lost more than 3,600 child care spaces for keiki under the age of 5 during the pandemic,” said Commit to Keiki Co-chairwoman Kerrie Uro­sevich.

“Access to child care is basic community infrastructure and should be prioritized as such.”