Parents sat in small chairs this week in an Ocean Beach preschool classroom usually reserved for their children. This time, however, it was the adults who were getting the education.
San Diego Unified School District officials and Ocean Beach Elementary School administrators met with parents at the OB Elementary Child Development Center on Wednesday, May 1, to discuss ways to avert the impending closure of the Early Childhood Development program.
While plans had been announced to shutter the Ocean Beach program and relocate it at the end of the current school year, a yearlong reprieve was granted by administrators. Educators remain uncertain about the longer-term future of the current CDC site, however.
Parents and administrators discussed potential solutions in the interim, including the addition of 15 new preschool-age children to the program, innovative fund-raising programs and the improvement of communication between parents and school administrators through monthly progress meetings.
“That’s a big deal for us, to continuously ensure our parents understand that if were going through fragile (economic) times, what that actually means and could mean for the future of the program,” said Debbie Beldock, executive director of Special Projects for SDUSD.
The Child Development Center, located at 4741 Santa Monica Avenue, sits next to Ocean Beach Elementary and provides before- and after-school care for preschool and school-age children from 2 to 10 years old.
The center assists parents with child care because some parents cannot afford private daycare, said parent Patricia Rossell.
Rossell is a single mother who has a son enrolled in the program. She said the program helps single mothers like her by providing quality education in a safe environment, she said.
“They are wonderful, wonderful people,” Rossell said, characterizing the teachers and teaching assistants at the center. “It’s like leaving my kids with my own mother.”
School administrators originally alerted parents in early April of the possibility the Child Development Center (CDC) would terminate services in June, Rossell said.
The plan would have relocated the CDC to Bay Point Preschool at the former Naval Training Center in Point Loma, where parents would be given the option to enroll their children, said Early Childhood Development Director Viola Muãoz.
After parents protested the initial announcement, Muãoz and school administrators held a conference Thursday, April 26, to inform parents that the department will be keeping the center and program open through the 200-08 school year. However, she said the department will “re-evaluate the sovereignty of Ocean Beach CDC by December of 2007.”
“The funds that we received from the state are not adequate to fund this program,” Muãoz told parents at the April 26 meeting.
Muãoz cited several reasons for the planned closure, including low attendance, an underfunded program and a labor dispute resulting in the hiring of more full-time positions with benefits.
In order to generate the $348,000 needed to operate the program annually, the CDC needs an average of 24 preschool-age students and 52 school-age children enrolled on a daily basis, Muãoz said. The center’s daily attendance currently is about 60 students. This generates an estimated $300,000, and falls short of the necessary operational funding level, Muãoz said.
It is important that daily attendance is kept up because state funding depends on how many students are in the classroom on a daily basis, Muãoz said. Preschool-age children earn the center twice the amount of money as a school-age child, according to administrators. The numbers of children in the program, in combination with the classroom capacities for students and faculty does not bring enough revenue to keep the program growing, Muãoz said.
The news appeared to leave parents at a loss for options in petitioning administrators to keep the program open.
“Why Ocean Beach, when it is as full as it always has been?” asked Cherylynne Brown, a parent of two children enrolled in the program.
Dorothy Harper, assistant superintendent for parents, students and community engagement, was present at the April 26 meeting. She suggested a two-pronged approach to address parental concern over an immediate closure. Harper suggested the parents write their state legislators to increase funding for the programs, while the center’s administration re-evaluates plans for relocation, she said.
Additional meetings will be scheduled monthly between administrators and parents to assess progress and address concerns, although an actual time line is yet to be established, said Muãoz.