By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 7, 2008

A 29-year-old Fairfax County day-care center run by the Salvation Army is closing, leaving dozens of families scrambling to make child-care arrangements for the coming school year.

An official who oversees the University View Child Development Center said the program does not reflect the Salvation Army's ethos of "doing the most good," because it serves children from mostly middle- to upper-income families in the surrounding neighborhoods.

"It's our mission to put ourselves in the position where we can help those who are in need. We have to be the best possible stewards of the money that people donate to the Army," said Keith Clark, chairman of the advisory board for the agency's Fairfax County Corps.

Clark said that enrollment has declined steadily since 2000 and that the center, on Ox Road near George Mason University, has been operating at a deficit. In recent years, funding from a regional Salvation Army has helped keep the doors open.

Parents and staff members learned last month that the center would close at the end this month, but officials pushed back the last day to Sept. 26.

Parents said they were first told that the problem was financial. Many said that they were upset to find out so soon before school resumes and that they wanted a chance to save the program. They offered to pay extra tuition or help market the center to boost enrollment. A group of parents developed a business plan, which entailed using profits from the center to fund the Salvation Army's other services.

"We gave ourselves timelines and projections, and we even said by March 31, 2009, if it is not making their targeted [financial goals] . . . that the center should close as of Aug. 1, 2009," said Tracy Warren, whose 7-year-old daughter attends the day-care program.

But at a follow-up meeting late last month, Clark and other officials said the decision to close would stand. They said they were committed to helping less-fortunate families. Even if the center could become profitable, Clark said, "we would not want to operate the center if it was fully subscribed with kids of families with some means."

Clark said that nine out of the 83 children attending the center this summer receive subsidized tuition because of financial hardship or because they are related to a Salvation Army employee. Duan Boonma, assistant director at the center, said that the number is higher.

Warren said that it's difficult to find quality, affordable child-care in Northern Virginia and that the Salvation Army has excellent teachers and care providers. To close the door on children because they do not meet "your typical needy outlook," she said, goes against the organization's mission, which is "to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination."

After the facility closes, it will be used by the Salvation Army's Korean ministry until another use is determined.

The 40,000-square-foot facility has a chapel for worship services, which are conducted in English and Korean on Sundays, and offices for social services programs. One program provides school supplies for needy children; another helps people with their energy bills.

On a recent afternoon, fliers advertising other day-care programs in the area were available on the desk at the entrance to the University View center. One parent, a dentist in McLean, arrived shortly after 6 p.m. to pick up her daughters. Karen Stokes said that her children entered the program in the spring and that she had been pleased with the staff. She understands that the Salvation Army wants to help less-fortunate families, she said, but the last-minute decision puts her family in a bind.

"It's a hard position to put a lot of working families in right before a school year," she said.