By Coralie Rogez

After nearly 20 years in the Los Altos area, Early Horizons parents and children are without a local center. How it happened is subject to debate, but the daycare center’s departure this month from its site at Christ Episcopal Church on Border Road means even fewer options for parents mulling Los Altos child care alternatives.

Approximately 65 families had been attending Early Horizons at the church site, said parent Liza Levin who has two children at the center. Early Horizons signed a two-year lease with Christ Episcopal in 2001 after being forced to leave its longtime space at Covington School, which Los Altos School District officials planned to reopen as an elementary school.

Church lawyer Rick Bell notified Early Horizons owners in early March the lease would not be renewed and they had 30 days to leave. The announcement took the center’s owners and parents by surprise, although Bell contends the owners initiated the move.

The action followed more than a year of mediation talks between the center, the church and surrounding neighbors who complained about excessive noise.

It was a blow to the non-profit center, its owners already in debt for furniture and assorted repairs made to accommodate enrollment of children, ages 2 months to 5 years.

“I’m furious at the people at the church only giving us 30 days,” said Levin last week.

The transfer to Early Horizons’ only remaining site in Sunnyvale has resulted in a crowded site of approximately 210 children, with class sizes jumping from 15 to 25, Levin said. Four teachers have been laid off in the transition and 10 families have left, according to co-owner Sue Cole.

“While discussions included renewal of the lease, and the church remained hopeful that it could do so, no promises were made to Early Horizons,” Bell said.

None of the neighbors the Town Crier reached was willing to go on the record about the day-care center.