Child services chief says she won't step down

The longtime chief of the state's Office of Child Care Services said yesterday she will not step down, defying an attempt by the Romney administration to remove her last week.

The dispute between Ardith Wieworka, who has headed the child-care agency since it was created in 1997, and Health and Human Services Secretary Ronald Preston has erupted as the state prepares to launch a new department dedicated exclusively to early childhood issues. The conflict has highlighted tensions between the administration and child-care advocates, who consider Wieworka an ally who has helped to improve the state's oversight of day care facilities during her tenure.

In a meeting Friday, Preston asked Wieworka to resign. Wieworka contends Preston didn't explain his motivation, and after weighing her options over the holiday weekend she has decided to fight the move. "I have made the determination that I will not resign," Wieworka said yesterday. "My assumption is that he will be aware that I'm refusing to resign and that he will fire me."

Preston said yesterday he told Wieworka on Friday that his request for her resignation wasn't because she has done a poor job. Rather, he said, he asked her to step down because the new Office of Early Education and Care will take on functions currently performed by the Office of Child Care Services, the Department of Education, and the Department of Public Health. That change may result in the dissolution of the child-care office, he said.

Preston said he wanted someone else to manage the transition, and offered Wieworka another job overseeing licensing for Health and Human Services. The new department is slated to open July 1, 2005.

"This was not anything we did, or we proposed. This was something the Legislature did. The Legislature eliminated Commissioner Wieworka's agency, not me," Preston said. "The bottom line here is that this is not a complaint with her administration of her agency, but rather her agency coming to an end."

Preston declined to say whether he would fire Wieworka if she doesn't resign.

Wieworka said she considers the licensing job a prelude to being forced out for good, and insists she is the best person to manage the shift to a new agency. She denied having designs on the top job in the new department.

"The new job for the new department is not even on the table. What we're talking about is continuing to lead the Office of Child Care Services during the transition to a new department," Wieworka said.

"There isn't anyone in state government who knows the Office of Child Care Services better than I do. It seems pretty disingenuous for him to say he needs someone different during this transition period."

Wieworka suggested yesterday that one reason for Preston's request was that she recently announced plans to marry her same-sex partner. However, Preston said he was unaware of the announcement. He added that there are other gay people in the administration and insisted that Wieworka's sexual orientation had nothing to do with his decision.

The Office of Child Care Services licenses the 2,200 child-care facilities and 11,000 home-based day-care centers in Massachusetts, which serve about 250,000 children.

In addition to regulating and policing those centers, the agency hands out child-care subsidies for low-income families. It has an annual budget of about $360 million.

The new department, which was strongly supported by House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, will place a greater emphasis on academics and focus on improving the training and pay of child-care workers. During the next decade, annual spending on early childhood education and care is expected to rise above $1 billion.

"It's a new circumstance and a new task," Preston said. "I'm very sorry that Commissioner Wieworka has taken it so hard."

Child-care advocates are also upset. Andrea Watson, a founder of Parents for Residential Reform, which is a project of the Federation for Children with Special Needs, said forcing Wieworka to resign "is not acceptable."

Watson said Wieworka has helped to forge links between parents and child-care providers.

"We are, as parents, coming together and asking her to keep the promise she made, not only to us but to the providers and others that she would be there to protect our children. . ." Watson said. "We have to keep her there."

William Eddy, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Day Care Agencies, said Preston's move "reflects a continued lack of leadership on early education" from the secretary.

"We're extremely perplexed about the timing of this," he said. "She has become quite popular in the early education community, and she clearly likes her job."

Scott Greenberger can be reached at greenberger@globe.com.