Dear Awesome BCC Parents:

Wishing you thoughts for a beautiful Spring…Summer will be here before we

know it.

After considerable thought, prayer, and discussion with the BCC administrative
team, teachers and our Board of Directors, I have made the difficult decision to
close the Infant Care Room at the Bellevue Learning Center effective Friday,
May 12, 2023.
510 Duncan Road The Bellevue Learning Center has offered high-quality, affordable childcare
Wilmington De 19809 service to our community for nearly four decades, and we opened our Infant
302-762-1391 Care Room in 2019 with the intention of filling a critical need new parents have
302-762-1652 Fax
for trusted caregivers for their youngest family members. We knew that
www.bellevuecc.org
offering care to children under the age of one involves certain unique
challenges, but as a 5 Star childcare facility with a long history of meeting and
Officers: exceeding Office of Childcare Licensing (OCCL) standards, we decided to take on
those challenges. However, it came to our attention recently that certain
Larry Swafford Infant Care Room teachers were not following the standards that BCC had set
(President)
for them and, in several cases, our teachers were not complying with OCCL
Kathleen Harder regulations. While an investigation showed that none of these issues involved
(Vice President) abuse and none of the infants in our care were endangered, we take these
procedural lapses in our Infant Care Room extremely seriously and the teachers
Aman Singh
(Treasurer) involved are no longer employed by BCC.

Closing our Infant Care Room is an extremely difficult decision, but the safety of
Sebastian Northey-Primer
(Secretary) our children must come before all else. We are undertaking an intensive review
of our procedures and protocols and, if possible, I hope that we may re-open
the Infant Care Room in 6 months to a year. In the interim, we are making
Dr. Shikira N. Allen additional teacher training mandatory for all of the other classrooms in our five-
Sara Altagracia star Bellevue Learning Center and we are increasing our classroom monitoring,
J. Clay Athey
Matthew Auerbach including through the installation of additional security cameras. Please know
Tony Benson II that we are taking every step to ensure the wellbeing of our children.
Nancy Cobb
I understand that this transition will be difficult, and I apologize for the
James Baker
Carl Shaw inconvenience this decision may cause you. I am grateful to each and every one
of you for trusting your children to our care and I ask for your continued
support as we work to make BCC even better.

Joe Wisniewski If you any questions or would like more clarification, please reach out to either
jwisniewski@bellevuecc.org me at jwisniewski@gmail.com or Dione Allen at dallen@bellevuecc.org.
(Executive Director)
Let’s keep working together to continue to make BCC the place to be!

All the best,

Joe Wisniewski
Executive Director

Come grow with us!