Abiyoyo Closure Marks An Experiment’s End

For 30 years parents have been keeping alive a daycare coop called Abiyoyo. By month’s end that era will end — thanks to a tough economy and changes in the child-care landscape.

That has brought a wistful air to the Westville center, where an experiment in family daycare has endured for more than a generation.

Parents of preschoolers like 2 1/2‑year-old Cole Perrone chip in an hour of labor of work at Abiyoyo helping staffer Jamila Epps (pictured above with Cole) teach kids their colors, their continents, and social skills. Not to mention having fun.

On Monday morning, for example, after cruising around green Africa and yellow South America, Cole joined his little pal Kevala Yucelen at the table in one of the two basement rooms the center has been occupying at the Beth El-Keser Israel synagogue (BEKI) at Harrison Street and Whalley Avenue for more than two decades.

While listening to the calming strains of ​“Itsy Bitsy Spider,” they enjoyed some Cheerios, organic raspberries, and a sprouted whole wheat bagel. These were purchased by Kevala’s mom, Guldeniz Yucelen, who has been a parent at Abiyoyo Family Cooperative Daycare for about a year. She’s a part-time psychologist at the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center. Her husband works at Edge of the Woods, which is why Yucelen took on the bulk purchase parental assignment at Abiyoyo.

Other parents do the accounting and financial work for the center, serve as liaisons with staff, or take on toy cleaning detail, said Cristina Matos, who is one of three teachers, all long-time employees, and the director of the center for the past 21 years.

“We could easily take any of these children home with us for the day or night” if a family needed that service or had a pick-up problem, ​“and they would love it,” said Matos.

The family atmosphere — sustained by a 1 to 4 adult to child ratio and the largely organic and vegetarian food (plus free diapers) — does not come cheap. It costs parents $1,300 a month for full-time care. Each fall for the past three years Abiyoyo has been unsure if the roster had enough children to meet costs.

By the state licensing regulations and fire codes that govern their space, Abiyoyo is permitted only 12 children per day because the center’s in a basement. When one family leaves, it’s hard to maintain enough money to cover costs, said Matos.

Although the space available is a generous toddler room and a generous preschool room, Abiyoyo is also constrained to recruit in certain age ranges. If the family of an enrolled 2 1/2‑year-old moves away, Abiyoyo must recruit another 2 1/2 year-old. It can’t take, say, a 1‑year-old to fill the slot. Because of the steep staircase down to one of the rooms, state rules require that at least half of the 12 kids at the center be able to walk well enough to manage the stairs on their own.

Over the years Abiyoyo has lowered the age of kids it accepts.

“Two years ago, we lowered it to 13 months and walking,” said Matos, who came to Abiyoyo right out of college and has stayed.

She described the synagogue as having been a fine landlord that helped Abiyoyo be grandfathered in to new regulations. For example, the little kids negotiating the stairs needed their own kid-high banister. The center had trouble maintaining the right age mix.

Every fall would find parents recruiting energetically to be able to stay open. They couldn’t recruit enough new families this fall, according to parent Paul North, who does the books for Abiyoyo.

The center considered emergency measures to stay open. But they couldn’t find a solution to keep the doors open. Families started looking for other daycare options.

As of Monday, when Cole, Kevala, and Mackenzie were playing amiably outside in the large sandy area by BEKI’s parking lot, Abiyoyo had only six families enrolled full or part time, with four or five kids a day being served.

Matos complimented the parents on having working hard but described an uphill battle against a worsening economy that makes the fees, which she says are competitive, too steep for some prospects.

“This is a phenomenon I have heard often recently. This is definitely due to the economy,” said Marcy Guddemi, executive director of the New Haven-based child development organization the Gesell Institute. ​“Childcare expenses are a family’s second largest expense after rent.”

Centers like Abiyoyo also face competition from the public school system’s Head Start, Early Head Start, and School Readiness programs. Those are free.

Back When Parents ​“Took Turns”

Laura Turlington is the mother of three kids who have gone through Abiyoyo, from 1994 to 2004. They’re now 18, 14, and 11; the middle child returned last summer to volunteer to read to the kids.

In the pre-BEKI days, when the school was on State Street, parents were the first teachers, she said. As time went on, licensing rules changed, and parents wanted more formal curriculum, so they began hiring teachers.

“Parents did ​‘turns,’” Turlington said. They put in hours as the third teacher. Gradually, that decreased to ​“half turns.” Soon they were no longer teaching but they continued doing other jobs.

Turlington praised the philosophical commitment of a school like Abiyoyo dedicated to having little kids mix with big kids. That attracted her to the school because ​“they came in young and graduated as elders.” The bigger kids served as teachers or mentors to the littler ones.

Matos said that although the school’s staffers knew in mid-August that school might not go on that year, they set up the rooms as if it would. She and Jamila Epps, also a veteran of 13 years at Abiyoyo, are committed to each day being as if the school were not closing.

Cole likes whales, said Jamila. ​“We feed off our children,” she said; monthly themes are adapted to kids’ interests. Matos said the last month of Abiyoyo will include the school’s greatest theme hits, including oceans, dinosaurs, making drums, and noodle art.

Abiyoyo Redux?

With only two weeks to go, Abiyoyo’s staff struck a note of optimism Monday. Matos said she may try to reopen the school in a different location next year. It would have parent involvement, but perhaps no contributory labor from parents. And it would have to be relocated in a new space where licensing would permit more kids and more little ones to make the numbers work.

Laura Turlington endorsed the idea of a reconceived Abiyoyo that maintains the mix of little kids with the big. Parents do have less time to give, she acknowledged.

“Cristina is a one of a kind manager and teacher. Abiyoyo succeeded against these odds for so long because of her and her teaching staff, ” said Turlington, who teaches graduate architecture students.

Matos has not gotten so far as a business plan. For now, she was planning ​“dinner” (a small post-nap meal around 3:30 p.m.) for the kids. The menu was classic Abiyoyo: salmon and edamame.