Central Los Angeles : Preschool Struggles to Remain Open

First, a half-million dollars of its state funding turned up missing. Now, teachers at a South-Central Los Angeles preschool are working without pay and parents are selling tamales to pay utilities, all in an effort to keep the David Roberti Child Development Center open.

Instructors and parents of 54, mostly Latino, children at the center say it doesn’t matter whether the school’s owner, Marilyn Prosser, is guilty or innocent of fraud and other federal charges or whether the state was justified in ordering the school closed because Prosser’s organization could not account for $500,000 in state funds.

The bottom line is they want to keep intact a staff and school that for 12 years has offered poor children a chance for a quality education.

“We are caught in the middle of this fight and the children are the innocent victims,” said parent Fermin Rivera. A coalition of parents and teachers hopes to form a nonprofit group and win state licensing and funding to continue the school.

The Roberti Center was ordered closed July 7 after negotiations fell through to transfer control of the school from the Foundation Center of Phenomenological Research to another agency. About a month earlier, the state Department of Education decided not to renew a contract with the Foundation Center in part because the private nonprofit agency could not account for the $500,000 in state funds.

Prosser, the agency’s executive director, was indicted in March on 19 federal counts of fraud, bribery and falsifying tax returns. The counts allege, among other charges, that Prosser used the organization’s money for her own use.

Prosser referred telephone calls for comment to Sacramento attorney Linda Dankman, who declined to comment. Prosser is allowing the program to stay in the building rent-free until another tenant can be found, a school official said.