VENTURA : Council Backs Loan for Day-Care Centers
The Ventura City Council decided Monday that the city would co-sign a bank loan of up to $1.5 million to help day-care providers fund construction of day-care centers on the grounds of the city’s schools.
The council thus agreed unanimously that the city should join in the financial risk with the five day-care providers, which now care for about 400 children in day-care and latchkey programs at 13 of the Ventura Unified School District’s 17 schools.
The providers, including the YMCA and Child Development Centers, would use the money to buy prefabricated classrooms and install them on school property rented from the school district, said Michael Smallwood, who oversees the program.
The construction loan is the latest step in a 2 1/2-year-old plan to increase the availability of day care for children in the district. Moving the day-care programs into the prefabricated buildings would allow the district to use the classrooms and cafeterias that now are being used for day care, Smallwood said.
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