Harmon leaving child care center

SALISBURY — Lisa Harmon, who has been the director of the Housatonic Child Care Center for eight years, will leave the center tomorrow.
In a March 5 letter to families and friends, Susan Vreeland, president of the child care center’s board of directors, said a search for a new director has already begun.

Charmaine Riva and Denise Gaynor will take over as interim co-directors, while the board “will take a more active role in helping to manage the operations,� the letter stated.

The center will soon begin its first reaccreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the largest accrediting organization for early childhood and child care centers in the nation.
Neither Vreeland nor Harmon returned phone calls seeking comment.

But in a March 6 letter to parents, Harmon said, “My board of directors and I have come to the realization that that the goals and philosophies I have set for the center are not the same and they have asked me to step down.�

The board asked Harmon to stay on until September to help with the search for her successor and to train the new director, but Harmon said she could not “stay under these circumstances� because she is convinced that her method of running the center “has always been in the best interests of the families, children and staff.�

In her letter, Harmon added it was suggested she announce she was choosing early retirement, but that she declined to do so.

“We were about to embark on our NAEYC reaccreditation process and I had no intention of going before that process was completed,� Harmon wrote.

The board has acknowledged Harmon’s “considerable contribution� to the center and has vowed to take “measures to assure a smooth transition.�

Eric Mendelsohn, vice president of the board of directors, is heading a search committee to  find Harmon’s successor.

The Housatonic Child Care Center began 39 years ago in the Lakeville United Methodist Church and moved to its modern facility on Salmon Kill Road in 1996.