By Sara Ballenger
 Photo by Sara Ballenger, Town Crier |
All but one day-care center find refuge
Searching for Space
“For many years Covington provided space for a number of day-care centers,” said Los Altos City Councilman John Moss, who served as mayor during the time of the Covington move. “It was obvious that a lot of people in Los Altos were going to be harmed. It’s well-known that good day care is hard to find and we (the city) had an active interest to keep as much day care as possible in Los Altos.” With the closing of the Covington site, about 250 children were displaced among the four care centers that were affected, said John McAlister, co-owner of Stepping Stones.
The city looked into available spaces at Hillview Community Center and expanding existing before- and after-care programs on school sites to include private programs.
“That was not readily available either,” Moss said.
The Packard Foundation lent a helping hand.
“Because this was our community, we felt it was our community responsibility to help out,” said Marie Young, senior program manager.
It took several months of searching for the Packard Foundation to find viable options to house the care centers.
“We drew up a very, very short list of what was potential,” Young said. “We met several times with the school district and the city to canvas for space. The school board was feeling pressure because they had their building to do and was looking to the city as well for solutions.”
Once potential sites were located, the centers went into bid. Stepping Stones Preschool and Infant Care won the bid for Grant Park in Los Altos, Montessori School of Los Altos relocated to the Mid-Peninsula YWCA in Palo Alto, Early Horizons relocated to Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos and The Morgan Center moved to Church of the Valley in Santa Clara.
New Horizons was unable to find a suitable space and closed their doors.
“New Horizons was a unique and incredible program,” said Early Horizons Director Mary Ashley, who had two children attending the program. “It was heart-wrenching for every parent when it closed down. There was such a sense of community and belonging.”
The closing of New Horizons was also disappointment to those involved in the moving process.
“Of course we are disappointed we didn’t bat a thousand,” said Young, about the closure of New Horizons. “But it’s great that three out of four were able to relocate.”
Other Challenges
Once space was found, there was more to the process than just moving in. The facilities had to be relicensed and day-care building regulations had to be met.
“We need to have 75-square-feet of outdoor space per child. The kids need a playground area,” said Kelly Linder, director and co-owner of Stepping Stones. “Inside, the state requires that we have 35 square feet (per child).”
Linder said the amount of outside space determines how many children the center can take. For Linder and McAlister, the smaller outdoor space meant cutting enrollment.
“We had a larger facility at Covington. We had to downsize,” McAlister said. Linder added, they had to ask about 15 families to leave.
“I think that was the hardest - to ask the families to leave,” she said. “Especially if we have had their children since they were small babies.”
For Early Horizons the move enabled the day-care center to add a preschool, though they still had some losses in enrollment.
“Our enrollment is definitely increasing,” Ashley said. “In a weird way, the classes are smaller but we have more classrooms, so our capacity actually grew to 72 full-time equivalent spots, due to our preschool addition.”
Ashley said before the move, the center had 52 full-time equivalent spaces and they had dwindled down to a 60 percent enrollment after the move.
“It’s nearly impossible to enroll new families when we say that we have a home but don’t really have a lease yet,” Ashley said. “Or, that we don’t have all of our use permits yet. This was not a quick process.”
Parents also felt anxious about the move.
“It was a little uneasy because of the new environment,” said parent Pam Louie, whose daughter Veronica and son Philip attend Early Horizons. We had some rocky starts and stops, but it worked itself out.”
Another hurdle which was translated to parents’ pocketbooks was an increase in rent.
“Our rent has doubled,” said Jennifer Sullivan, executive director of The Morgan House. “The prices have been astronomical the last few years. There is a whole group of us who are having to pay ridiculous rents and then the school has to turn around and charge ridiculous rates.”
Early Horizons and Stepping stones also saw a rent increase.
“Rent here at Grant Park is at least 25 percent more,” Linder said.”
In all instances, the care providers were given use of the buildings, but had to pay for any renovations to bring the buildings up to code themselves, said both McAlister and Ashley.
“The city said here’s the building and we had to pay for all of the improvement,” McAlister said.
A year after the move, the care providers still consider child care in Silicon Valley at a critical state.
The Future
It has been a quite a year for the former tenants of Covington School.
Stepping Stones Preschool and Infant Care, Montessori School of Los Altos, Early Horizons and New Horizons preschool and day-care centers and The Morgan Center, which served children and adults with autism, were told by the Los Altos School district last year that their annual leases would not be renewed. Montessori School of Los Altos was not available for comment at press time.
The privately owned centers were given until November of last year to move out of Covington School and find new homes.
Covington School, which has been closed as an elementary school since 1980, hosted the care centers and currently houses the district offices.
It is being renovated along with all schools in the district as part of the $94.7 million bond measure passed in 1998 and is slated to reopen as an elementary school next year.
“The school is supposed to be ready the end of June 2002, and open in August 2002 as a new elementary school,” said Dave McNulty, construction facilities manager for the district.
“When Covington reopens as an elementary school, there will be no room for any of those previous tenants.”
The school district will lose about $400,000 in annual rental income from Covington tenants, which went into the district’s general fund, said Randy Kenyon, assistant superintendent of business services.
For the care providers and preschools, the search for new space was on.
“They should look at child-care space the same as affordable housing,” McAlistar said. “In a sense it is a necessary need, and yet it is very expensive.”
Young sees the solution in viewing child care as a community issue rather than an individual need.
The centers are looking forward to putting this last year behind them.
All involved stress that the need for local quality child care is not going to go away.
“We are sometimes low on the totem pole,” McAlister said. “That is until you need the child care and then (the lack of child care) becomes a big issue.”
For more information, call Stepping Stones Preschool and Infant Care at 960-1303, Montessori School of Los Altos at 493-7200, Early Horizons at 941-4248 and The Morgan Center at (408) 241-8161.
