| Metropolitan Daycare Center celebrates 60th year of nurturing
GREENSBORO-- When Brenda James was 2 and still an only child, she started leaving home every day. But she never left her family."I had a lot of 'brothers' and 'sisters' to play with during the day," James said . "It was my first experience away from family with people I didn't know, but they became my extended family."James, now a retired social worker, had joined the first students at Metropolitan Day Nursery, which opened in 1947 as the first day care for African American children in Greensboro.The day nursery, now a Head Start program for prekindergarten students called Metropolitan Daycare, marks its 60th anniversary this year.After World War II-era federal support for child care ended in 1947, the Greensboro Negro Businessmen's League kept a day care open for African American children near Bennett College.
Breast-milk fee angers mom
Robin Neorr was thrilled when she found a day-care center for her newborn daughter just 2 miles from her Downtown job. But she was shocked when she learned about its policy on bottled breast milk. The center, City Kids Daycare, told her it doesnt store breast milk on site, she said. And she would have to bring a bottle in every time her daughter, Ceili, got hungry. "I didnt really think it was fair, but at that point I was so pregnant and miserable," said Neorr, of Clintonville, noting that she learned about the policy a couple of weeks before her daughter was born on Nov. 5. Later, the center agreed to accept her bottled breast milk if she paid an extra $10 a day. She paid the fee for eight weeks until she found an opening at a center that doesnt charge. At City Kids, her breast milk was kept in a different refrigerator from the bottles of infant formula.
Babysitter pleads not guilty to kidnapping charge
On Monday, a Winchester babysitter pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and two counts of reckless endangerment to a child after allegedly disappearing for several hours with a Winchester couple’s child Friday night. Jodi Asaro, 35, of 56 Oak Street, was arraigned in Woburn District Court Monday morning for the alleged kidnapping of Winchester residents James and Emily Thomas’ 18-month-old son, Owen Henry Thomas. The alleged incident unfolded on Friday night, when the Thomas’ contacted the Winchester Police Department and said Asaro, her 17-month-old baby and their son were missing. Asaro had been looking after the children at her home, but when Emily Thomas went to pick up her child, Asaro and the toddlers were gone. The Thomases told police that Asaro had never been late returning their baby in the past, and her husband, Nick Asaro, confirmed that she was typically on time.
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