Aroostook County will soon lose another child care facility with the closure of Kelly’s Place Learning Center in Presque Isle.
Owner Shyla Pinette confirmed Wednesday that her facility, located at 180 Houlton Road, will close next month.
The County has struggled with child care for several years. With multiple center closures, parents who work outside the home often face a dilemma: find child care or be unable to work. Operating costs are one challenge. Another large day care, Miss Jordyn’s in Caribou, closed in 2023, affecting more than 100 children.
In the case of Kelly’s Place, Pinette said there has been an issue that has apparently slowed the arrival of her state subsidy payments, which led to her falling behind on her bills. She was also applying for a Community Development Block Grant, but even that $100,000 wouldn’t have been enough to save the facility.
“Subsidy kids get help from the state for child care, and over 90 percent of the kids in my day care are state-funded,” Pinette said. “And that money is not coming in in a timely fashion.”
The center, which employs 20 people and serves 74 children, will close on March 28. Staff and parents were informed on Feb. 11, she said.
Money from Maine’s Child Care Subsidy Program helps families at lower income levels pay for child care, but according to Pinette, that money has been slowly or inconsistently arriving in recent months.
Pinette doesn’t know the reason for the delays. She said her staff have been completing the necessary documentation of hours they’ve worked and filed those reports on time every month.
As the payments have been slow to come in, the day care has fallen behind on its bills and incurred late fees that have outgrown the original bills, Pinette said. That has been on top of growing costs for utilities and taxes on the building.
Pinette first noticed changes in her state payments in November, she said.
“When you have to take money out of your personal bank account, from your family, to pay payroll, that’s an issue at the end of the day,” Pinette said.
Pinette started working on a day care concept about four years ago, and worked with Northern Maine Development Commission in Caribou on small business funding. It took about three years to complete financial work, obtain state licensing and find a building.
Pinette bought the former Cornerstone Christian Academy on Houlton Road, opening Kelly’s Place in June 2023. She named the center after a friend who died during childbirth.
Pinette sought help with her application for the block grant from the Presque Isle City Council, saying operating expenses were so high she needed financial intervention to keep Kelly’s Place open. At a meeting in September, two residents with children at the center said its closing would be detrimental to their families and jobs.
Pinette, who lives in Mapleton with her husband Travis and 4-year-old daughter Abbrielle, doesn’t plan on starting another child-care business. But she does intend to become an advocate for better child care in Maine. The state isn’t making it the priority it should be, she said.
The decision to close was difficult. She and her husband will pay the remaining bills out of their pockets.
She hates leaving parents up in the air. Some are already exploring other child care options, and Aroostook County Action Program has expanded some of its day care capacity as well, she said.
“I’ve done my crying,” Pinette said. “But at the end of the day, I want to make sure that my kids have a place to go where they’re safe and loved, and I want to make sure that my staff [go to] good places they deserve.”
