DeLAND, Fla. – The lawyer for the owner of a DeLand day care, who parents and workers say shut down the business without telling anyone and took the money, says that the day care was shut down over lack of funding and the termination of contracts.
"She's a liar and she's really trying to get away from us because she did something that she shouldn't have," Tracy Thompson said.
But attorney Christopher Byrd, who's representing Celianne Romero, the owner of Children's Playskool, says that's not true.
"Children's Playskool had no intentions of wrongfully withholding any compensation due to its employees, no intention of wrongfully holding any personal items or credits paid to the company by the parents," he said. "Everybody will be made whole for services rendered and for time paid."
Parents and staff say the closing all came as a complete shock but Byrd says Romero, who also goes by the name of Miss Chelsea, did notify everyone about the situation and the financial struggles.
Byrd told Local 6 the financial struggles came after the Early Learning Coalition stopped two contracts with the daycare, which is a huge portion of their funding.
"The ELC has unilaterally terminated this contract as of Aug. 28," Byrd said. "For them to continue with the participation in the voluntary pre-kindergarten and unilaterally terminated the participation in the school readiness program as of June 17."
The ELC tells Local 6 it ended the contracts with the day care because of suspicion of fraud.
Local 6 was also told Romero filed a lawsuit against the ELC in late June, which is still pending.
"Ms. Romero has tried everything she can to keep the business afloat, to keep her employees employed and to keep those children enrolled in her school with high quality child care services," Byrd said.
The ELC says it immediately notified parents that they were no longer contracting with the school and they do have other options to go to another provider that's contracted with the ELC. If parents need help looking for another day care provider, visit ELC's website or call 386-801-9015.
A day care employee also showed Local 6 personal records of children that she says Romero dumped in the garbage the night she emptied out the day care.
The employee told Local 6 she took the records she could so she can try to dispose them properly.