Butler County Family YMCA has announced it intends to close its third childcare location at the HIS Kids Christian School building in Jefferson Township and consolidate its operations into its main Butler location. The final day for the South Butler location is Nov. 6.

Parents who use the South Butler location received a text message through the YMCA’s messaging system about the closure Monday night, Aug. 31.

“This decision was not made lightly,” wrote childcare director Kelly Tennent in a message to parents, which was provided to the Butler Eagle. “I want to assure you that our priority throughout this process is the well-being, safety and continued success of every child and family we serve.”

According to Tom Spence, executive director of the Butler YMCA, the move is being taken to consolidate South Butler’s childcare staff at the main Butler location on North Washington Street to fill staffing vacancies.

“At the Butler Y, we have three empty classrooms with a waiting list of children to come in,” Spence said. “Staffing in childcare has been challenging and the numbers at that center are below what they’ve normally been historically. So, the thought is, if we can join forces, we can serve more children and that’s really what we’re in the business to do.”

Spence said all families and children who are being displaced by the move will have a spot waiting for them at the Butler YMCA.

“Everybody that’s there (at South Butler) … there’s a spot waiting for them at the Butler Y. So, they wouldn’t be out of childcare,” Spence said. “There would be a transition in travel for sure, but we've invited them to come and be part of the childcare here.”

One of the parents affected by the planned closure is Matt Linebaugh. Although his family lives in Butler Township, he still brings his two children about 10 miles out to the South Butler YMCA childcare center at HIS Kids instead of the closer Butler YMCA location.

“I love the location,” Linebaugh said. “I feel like it’s safe. The town of Saxonburg is safe and (the location is) connected to a small private Christian school.”

In addition, Linebaugh and his wife, Kim, were planning on sending their children to HIS Kids preschool once they were ready.

“I was going to send my daughters to preschool there,” Linebaugh said. “Preschool is a half day and they would just go straight to the preschool daycare room for the second half of the day. It would be very easy logistically. Lots of parents do that. It’s almost like a feeder system. They go to daycare and then they go to preschool.”

“Giving two months notice in the childcare world is very short notice to make arrangements,” Kim Linebaugh said.

Despite this, Matt Linebaugh said options for an alternative daycare are limited.

“There’s wait lists on a lot of daycares, so it’s not like you can just switch easily,” he said. “Sometimes you’re on a waitlist for six months. We had to be on waitlist to get into this one. It’s not like you can just switch.”

Families who use the South Butler childcare location have been invited to an open house at at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 14 at the Butler YMCA, or for individual tours if they cannot make that time work for them.

Other programs at HIS Kids Christian School will not be impacted by the YMCA’s decision.