Finger Pointing Follows Day-Care Closure Fired Director Plans To Sue Owners; Owners Blame Employees For Problems

Karen Black worked at Kiddee Kollege Child Care Center only nine days, but her departure has started a flurry of name-calling and threats of lawsuits.

The state shut down the North Side center Feb. 15, the day after owners Darrell and Helen Nelson fired Black, the director. Most of the other eight employees quit.

Children weren’t being properly supervised at the center, according to reports from the state Department of Social and Health Services.

Black and her lawyer, Jeff Thimsen, plan to sue the Nelsons for wrongful termination and defamation, Thimsen said Sunday.

Black said she was fired 15 minutes after reporting problems at Kiddee Kollege to Child Protective Services.

“I find it incredible that (with) an employee who’s been there something like nine work days, that the owners try to pin all the problems on her,” Thimsen said.

The Nelsons said they didn’t fire Black in response to her complaints, but because of incompetence.

“She didn’t report us until after we fired her,” Darrell Nelson said.

The Nelsons, who are in the process of hiring an attorney, blame former director Melanie Jacobs for the center’s problems, such as child-to-staff ratios that exceed state guidelines and high employee turnover.

“She was in charge,” Helen Nelson said. “The director is 100 percent totally responsible for everything that goes on behind those walls.”

Jacobs declined comment Sunday until she could contact a lawyer.

Black has a master’s degree in public administration and social work from Eastern Washington University. She and her lawyer refused to discuss problems at the center.

“Basically it’s not our intent right now to go forward with some big expose of Kiddee Kollege,” Thimsen said. “That’s why they have state agencies. Our focus is on Miss Black’s termination and on any defamatory statements that have been made.”

The Department of Social and Health Services said in a Feb. 15 letter that it will consider lifting the center’s suspension March 1, if the center meets these requirements:

Helen Nelson cannot be at the center while children are present. This is because of a November 1994 complaint that she inappropriately spanked a child and slapped a child’s hand.

Nelson admits to slapping a child’s hand, but says she never spanked any child.

A new director and program supervisor with appropriate credentials must be hired, and they must hire and train new staff.

Deficiencies found in a state inspection earlier this month must be corrected. The fire alarm system must be checked monthly, mats must be disinfected when used by more than one child and playground equipment must be added.

The Nelsons said they’ve fixed those problems. They have hired and trained six new staff members, including a director, and want to re-open.

“We put our lives into this center, and we’re not going to see it destroyed,” Darrell Nelson said.

The Nelsons are mailing out letters to President Clinton, members of the Washington state congressional delegation and state representatives. They’re also sending letters to the more than 90 parents who have brought children to the center this year.

A year ago, about 65 children were cared for daily at Kiddee Kollege on West Nora, licensed to handle up to 72 kids from the age of one month to seven years. But the center’s popularity was waning. When it closed, the center cared for 30 to 40 children a day.

Other former employees praised Black for trying to turn the center around.

“I thought she was doing a good job,” said Julie Calkins, who quit in protest the day Black was fired. “She was really trying to get things done. She was trying to do her best.”

The Nelsons have invested about $300,000 in the center since opening it in 1982, Darrell Nelson said.

A cow jumping over the moon sits on top of the three-story, white building, and an egg-head sporting glasses reads a book off to the side. Mary and her little lambs line a chain-link fence.

Now, the building’s shuttered, with a letter from the Nelsons posted on the front door indicating they expect the problems to be quickly resolved.

Most of the center’s ground floor is covered in sawdust and boards, still under construction two years after the project started. The second floor has rooms for toddlers and preschoolers, and a general play area. An apartment in a building connected to the center housed kindergartners.

Now it looks like a children’s ghost town. Helen Nelson worries that it may stay that way.

“I don’t think anybody’s enrolled now,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t think anybody’s going to come back.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: RECENT COMPLAINTS Kiddee Kollege Child Care Center in north Spokane has received complaints from 17 sources over the past 18 months, according to the Department of Social and Health Services. In a Feb. 15 letter shutting down the center, the agency cited these recent complaints: Children were repeatedly bitten by another child, and employees failed to take appropriate action. Children weren’t properly supervised. One child was found walking on a folding table without any adults watching. There have been four “upheavals of staff” in the last two years, including two directors in the past month. Owners Darrell and Helen Nelson have sent letters to the agency stating that new staff members have hired and trained. They blame past problems on irresponsible employees.