
DATE: Tuesday, November 18, 1997            TAG: 9711180278

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  131 lines

PARENTS, EMPLOYEES ARRIVE AT FACILITY ONLY TO FIND IT EMPTY AND SHUT DOWN

When Tiffany Douglas arrived at Baby Palace child-care center Monday at 7:30 a.m. to drop off her 4-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter, she walked into every working parent's nightmare:

A locked door. A center stripped of toys, cots, tables, furniture and everything but the ABCs on the walls. And a group of angry parents - and employees - who were left in the lurch when the center's owner closed shop without notice over the weekend.

``I thought they'd been robbed, at first,'' said Douglas, who was standing in the parking lot Monday with her son, Deshawn, in her arms. ``I had to take off work; I had no choice. I had to have someone to take care of my children.''

The owner of the center, Barbara Calevas, cleaned out the center Saturday without telling employees or the parents of the 88 children who attended the child-care center at 544 Newtown Road, or even giving notice to the owners of the building.

Calevas said she was forced to close the center because of problems she was having with the state's Department of Social Services Eastern Regional Division, which licenses child-care centers in Hampton Roads. Another center owned by Calevas still is operating, but inspectors have cited problems there, too. The license for that center, located at 3794 Virginia Beach Boulevard, expired Friday, and a renewal is pending.

``I can't say anything else,'' Calevas said Monday about the closing of the Newtown Road center. ``My attorney has advised me not to. But I can tell you that no child was hurt there; it was not a problem with safety.''

However, July inspection and complaint records from the Department of Social Services show numerous health and safety violations at the center on Newtown Road, including: bathrooms, tables, chairs, cribs and walls with several layers of dirt; cigarette butts on the playground; lack of electrical outlet covers; broken chairs with exposed nails; and equipment in ``devastatingly substandard condition.''

The licensing specialist also found that many of the children didn't have enough to do. One school-age child, for instance, amused himself by walking around the center and stretching himself between coat hooks. An infant was found awake in a crib for more than an hour and a half, rocking and pulling on the bars of the crib.

There were also no records of the staff's references, education, experience or criminal record checks, and no documentation of staff orientation or training, according to the inspection report.

During the same month that violations were noted, a separate complaint came in against the Baby Palace, saying that staff members were often forced to buy food, soap, or disinfectant for diaper changes on their own. The complaint report said children didn't get enough food for lunch and often said they were hungry, but received no seconds. The person complaining also said that one child had been hit by a staff person with a thin block, that another was hit with a belt and that still another was ``hit upside the head.'' The complaint report also said that children were sometimes made to stand with their arms outstretched for a while, or on one foot.

The owner, however, said all of those allegations were untrue on the complaint report. Calevas also said on the report that a parent made up the allegations because she didn't want to pay her bill.

The abrupt closing of the Baby Palace comes at a time when the state is considering changing regulations for day-care centers. Opponents say the changes, which will reduce education requirements for center directors and increase some of the child-to-staff ratios, may put children at risk. A public hearing on the changes is set for Wednesday at Virginia Wesleyan College.

The DSS regional licensing administrator, Susan Hackney, said the final decision to close Baby Palace was made by the owner, although that option had been suggested by licensing inspectors.

``We didn't find out they were closing until we started getting calls from parents and employees today,'' Hackney said. The center's license had expired in May, and the renewal was pending correction of the violations.

Hackney said the licensing officials were working with Calevas to correct violations at both Baby Palace centers. ``We were working on the two centers as a package,'' Hackney said. ``We had discussed with her the option of closing one down in order to focus her efforts on the other.''

Several employees of the Baby Palace on Newtown Road said that they were just as surprised - and angry - as parents at the sudden closing of the center.

Employee Toya Holland said she didn't find out the center was closing until Saturday, when she drove by and saw moving vans in front. She has worked at the center since it opened four years ago.

``The center looked like a ghost town. I'm out of a job, out in the cold,'' Holland said. ``I knew we were having problems with licensing, but every time I asked the owner about it, she'd say `Everything is fine.' ''

Holland said that staff often bought food and snacks for the children using their own money. She said the paychecks of the 15 to 18 employees at the center ``bounced like basketballs,'' and that the center continually was understaffed, throwing it out of compliance with the state's child-staff ratio requirements.

``She would send people home even when they needed to be here because she didn't want to pay them,'' Holland said. Another staff member, Brenda Rockett, said she sometimes cared for more than 20 toddlers at a time, by herself, for hours at a time. State regulations require child-care centers to have one adult for every 10 children ages 2 to 4 years.

Parents, meanwhile, feel betrayed by the owner.

Beatrice Jackson has a 7-year-old daughter, Kendra, who attended the center's before- and after-school program.

``I was shocked, and I was appalled,'' Jackson said. ``I had to call in and say I couldn't come to work. And now I have to take off work to find a new place. That's not something you can do in a day. I have to find someone I can trust. And that takes time.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

DAY-CARE NIGHTMARE

DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH photos/The Virginian-Pilot

Toya Holland was a supervisor and a teacher at the Baby Palace. When

employees and children-toting parents arrived Monday morning, they

found the preschool/day-care facility was closed and empty. Even the

furniture and toys were gone.

Tiffany Douglas, holds her 4-year-old son, Deshawn, who was a

full-time student at Baby Palace. In the background is Brenda

Rockett, who was a teacher there.

FOR HELP

For a list of licensed child-care providers, call the state's

Department of Social Services' Eastern Regional Office at 491-3990