MARK SMITH / PVT This sign in the window of the former Lil' Rascals Day Care Center offers the site for a cool $1.4 million. Advertisement

One of the owners of the Lil' Rascals Day Care Center on Calvada Boulevard said the facility was closed July 24 after she was informed the preceding Friday that its license had been removed by the state.

"I found out Friday (July 21)," said Michele Orosco, co-owner with Shannon Staley. "I got the letter in the mail."

She said she feels the state overreacted after a short inspection of the facility earlier in the year.

The inspector, she said, "spent eight minutes" in the day care center.

Because of abrupt scheduling changes, she said the inspector determined that insufficient staff was on hand for the number of children present.

"They said we didn't have enough teachers for the children and figured it wasn't a safe environment for them," Orosco said during her first public interview.

Orosco said there had never been an accident involving a child attending her facility.

Teachers and parents showed up Monday morning to a sign announcing the closing on one of the glass doors and, later in the morning, a locksmith changing the locks.

Both office manager Kim Moorman and recently hired part-time director Terry Labarre said they had no warning that the center would be closing up.

Orosco and some of the teachers said they had been led to believe that Labarre's hiring had served as a solution to problems and might ensure the center's continued operation. "She was well-experienced, and I thought that should have taken care of the director issue they were concerned about."

Orosco said she was upset about the state's shutdown of her facility. "My sincere apologies to the parents," she said. "I love their kids."

According to Orosco, the letter adising her that the license was removed came from Paula Hawkins, with the Bureau of Child and Family Services, a division of the Health and Human Services Department. Hawkins could not be reached by telephone.

A hearing was held earlier in the year, but Orosco said she was never informed that she should have legal representation with her. Two different state offices, she said, were there with lawyers in tow.

"Some of it was so blown out of proportion," Orosco said of portions of the state's testimony, "and I couldn't believe it. We had already corrected all those things they were concerned about."

As for having too few staff members on hand, Orosco said that on occasion parents would bring in their children without regard to their schedule, for any number of reasons, and the facility then had to hustle to call more staffers to come in.

One allegation against the center, Orosco said, claimed that "'two teachers forced (a child) down,' which was not true."

She said the actual event involved a girl who became unruly, kicking and yelling. A young teacher picked up the girl, placed her in a playpen and then sat down next to her, outside the playpen, and talked to her until she calmed down.

Orosco said that after receiving the letter from Hawkins, she dared not open the center at all Monday.

"I was afraid they'd come in and shut me down, and I'd have to call all the parents to come get their kids and take them home."

She said she is not sure whether she'll appeal the state decision. "I want to appeal just because this town needs it."