GUILDERLAND — Parents and former employees of Christ the King Early Childhood Education Center in Guilderland are alleging that the workplace is “poorly managed.”

The Albany Diocese has told The Enterprise that, following an unannounced state visit on Jan. 12, noted violations have largely been remedied.

Subsequent violations noted by the state ranged from discipline or toilet training that would “frighten, demean or humiliate a child” to children being left “without competent supervision.”

Christ The King runs universal pre-kindergarten classes in partnership with the Voorheesville and Guilderland school districts, which receive state funds to educate 4-year-olds but don’t have space to house those classes in their own schools.

Guilderland Superintendent Marie Wiles said she would not comment on the concerns shared with her by The Enterprise. “We have not received any similar complaints from our CTK families. We have a positive working relationship with CTK and are grateful for their partnership,” she said by email.

Voorheesville Superintendent Frank Macri declined to comment. 

While parents in on-the-record and background conversations with The Enterprise had nothing but the highest praise for Christ The King’s teaching staff, their complaints centered on the administration, made up of about a half-dozen people including the director.

The Enterprise was made aware of the situation after being copied on an email that a parent sent to school administrators; Reverend Rick Lesser, pastor of Christ the King Roman Catholic Church; the Albany Archdiocese of which the Guilderland church is a part; and Voorheesville Elementary School Principal Jeff Vivenzio, among others.

The email was a series of broad, largely investigation-related recommendations made by Voorheesville parent Jessica Viola, whose child was a student in a Christ The King universal pre-K class. “I waited until yesterday when my son was no longer in their care to send my recommendations,” Viola told The Enterprise in late June.

“I have always been taught that ‘if you see something, you say something,’” began Viola’s June 26 email. “Operating under those fundamental values, I, along with other parents, brought concerns to Father Rick, OCFS [the state’s Office of Children and Family Services], and the Catholic Diocese of Albany in December when Christ The King administration avoided meeting with us.”

Parent recommendations

The catalyst for the meeting, Viola said, had been “three people fired between a Friday and Monday in December.” Only one was terminated; the other two, according to letters sent to Lesser, resigned. One wrote of “growing frustrations related to the job” and the other wrote of “unprofessional and irresponsible actions to the director.”

Viola recommended:

— Christ The King conduct comprehensive surveys of current pre-K and school-age program (SAP) parents, staff, and, if possible, former staff and families to gather data on existing issues;

— The Voorheesville Central School District hold a feedback session for 2023-24 UPK program parents to evaluate the Christ The King partnership;

— The launch of a thorough investigation into Christ The King Early Childhood Center’s financial practices; 

— Removing the director or establishing a governing board including Voorheesville and Guilderland representatives to provide oversight to limit unilateral decision-making; and

— Implementing communication training for Christ The King administration to ensure clear, concise, and detailed correspondence with parents and staff.

Christ The King has a total capacity of 173, according to the state’s Office of Children and Family Services, 117 of whom are of preschool age, and over half of those students are attending as part of a public-school-district universal pre-kindergarten program.

Guilderland’s contract is for two UPK classes of up to 20 students, while Voorheesville’s is for one 20-pupil class with no more than 27 students, according to its most-recent agreement; Viola said there’s a “hybrid” UPK class containing both public- and private-school students, one of whom was her son.

Each school district’s contract with the early childhood education center pays Christ The King $5,400 per student per year. (While Guilderland originally had state funding at a per-pupil rate of $5,400, it subsequently received an $800,000 grant — federal funds distributed by the State Education Department — that pays $7,000 per student in a class with an uncertified teacher and $10,000 per student with a certified teacher.)

The school day at Christ the King runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., with aftercare available for $700 per month. Half-day tuition for children not funded by the state runs about $600 per month for a September to June school year.

Diocese response

In response to requests for comment from the director and Lesser, The Enterprise received the following response from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany:

“It would be inappropriate for us to comment on current or former personnel issues.

“We can say that concerns were brought to the attention of the administration at Christ the King. All who shared concerns were encouraged to report those concerns to the proper agency for investigation. Christ the King welcomed and cooperated fully with resulting investigations. 

“In April, a letter was sent to families of the Early Childhood Center, regarding the findings of investigations conducted by the NYS Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS). It explained that commencing in January 2024, OCFS field officials conducted on-site inspections of the Early Childhood Education Center. One of these inspections was prompted by the Center’s self-report of compliance concerns. OCFS’s inspections revealed a total of five (5) regulatory violations.” 

Only one violation is listed on the state website. After the Jan. 12 unannounced visit, these violations were listed: two instances of leaving children without competent supervision; not notifying parents promptly about serious incidents; not keeping children’s medical records on file; and discipline or toilet training that could frighten, demean or humiliate a child.

“No fines were assessed,” the diocese continued, “and no enforcement action was taken by OCFS. However, the Center undertook voluntary and prompt corrective action to remedy each identified area of non-compliance. We are pleased to report that on February 23, 2024, the Center was advised by OCFS that the Center is fully in compliance with all regulatory requirements, and the most recent audit conducted by OCFS revealed no significant compliance concerns.

“The OCFS findings are a matter of public record. An updated summary of the Center’s compliance history, in accordance with New York State regulations, was posted at the Center for families to review. It can also be accessed through OCFS.”

The January inspection, according to OCFS, was an annual unannounced visit; the only violation that appears on the state website was Christ The King not having a health-care plan on file for a student who had a sudden allergic reaction. 

Following OCFS’s Jan. 12 unannounced visit, the agency received five complaints about Christ The King, three of which were deemed substantiated — and corrected — and one it continues to monitor. 

Two in late January, on the same day, appear related. 

The descriptions of the corrective actions taken in order to come into compliance, state:  

“Children cannot be left without competent supervision at any time. Competent supervision includes awareness of and responsibility for the ongoing activity of each child. It requires that all children be within a teacher's range of vision and that the teacher be near enough to respond when redirection or intervention strategies are needed. Competent supervision must take into account the child's age, emotional, physical, and cognitive development.”

And: 

“The program must immediately notify the parent and Office upon learning of the following events involving a child which occurred while the child was in care at the program or was being transported by the program: serious incident.”

Staffing

Staffing ratios were a perpetual-but-solvable problem for Christ The King classroom employees, according to three of them, who claimed employees from the overstaffed administrative office were supposed to step in for short bursts throughout the day when, for example, someone in the classroom had to go to the bathroom, but instead decided it was time for a break. 

The ratio is a state regulation mandating each classroom, depending on student age, have a certain number of adults overseeing the children. For pre-K, the Guilderland contract calls for the staffing ratio to be one certified teacher and at least two teaching assistants for every 19 or 20 students; the ratio goes down to one teacher and one assistant when there are 18 students in the classroom.

Two of the former employees, Lauren Wemett and Antonio Medina, in their letters to Lesser state, “There have also been numerous times that classrooms have been left out of ratio knowingly,” which is a “direct violation of OCFS and NYS regulations for childcare; leaving students with insufficient supervision .…”

Wemett and Medina then recounted how, after requests were made to the administrative office for help, the staffers would be seen making their “daily coffee runs” and enjoying a “smoke break.”

Another former employee who resigned, Jennifer Audi, told the director by email, “This is the most stressful, poorly managed, unorganized place I have been a part of”; there are “very few bathroom breaks. You have to wake all the kids up to go to the bathroom if the ratio is not correct.”

The children, Audi wrote, were the best part of the job but they didn’t seem to matter. “They are being pulled out of rooms crying for ratio,” she claimed, “unless there isn’t anyone to take them, then ratio doesn’t seem to matter.”

Other complaints

The complaint made in April being monitored by OCFS relates to Christ The King maintaining current and accurate medical records. 

The other complaint, made in March, is related to establishing and following a written behavior-management plan. The description of the violated regulation states that the plan must include “methods of discipline, interaction or toilet training which frighten, demean or humiliate a child are prohibited.”

Some “fees” charged to parents, claim Viola, the Voorheesville parent, and another former Christ The King employee, could be seen as questionable at best or the slow bilking of dozens of parents over a number of years at worst. 

While The Enterprise shared with the diocese the allegations made about financial mismanagement, the diocese did not respond to those allegations.

Wemett, who for two years worked at Christ the King as a teacher assistant in the nursery, toddler, and Guilderland UPK programs, pointed to Christ The King’s “find-out” program as an example. 

For the program, parents pay a monthly fee so their children can participate in projects and activities organized by outside individuals. Wemett wrote in her December 2023 letter that the UPK program was not part of find-out activities last year, yet parents were still charged the $50 fee.

And messing with people’s money wasn’t just the straight-forward practice of charging fees for services that weren’t provided, it took on other forms at Christ The King, according to employee accounts.

Wemett in her letter to Lesser said that she and her lead teacher were told that, because they were “working under the district,” they’d receive some “amazing” public-school benefits like paid holiday breaks. 

The benefits, she wrote, were a “selling point of the position.”

After having a few extra days off during Christmas break, days in which `Guilderland schools were also closed, Wemett wrote that she was spoken to about “excessive PTO [paid-time off] use.”

“During the course of this meeting, we found out my excessive PTO was because the company was using my PTO to pay for the Christmas Break that I was already paid for and stayed home for,” she claimed.

“Some time later,” she wrote, she was informed she’d be working during February vacation and over Easter break, information she found confusing because she and her lead teacher “were told the district pays us to take those breaks.”