Parents Protest Cuts in Tutoring Funding

Tearful mothers and daughters implored the San Fernando City Council to provide more federal grant funds to El Centro de Amistad, a tutoring, counseling and gang prevention agency that provides services free of charge.

The federal government awarded the city of San Fernando a total of $543,424 in Community Development Block Grant funds to disburse this year to public agencies and social service organizations.

Since 1989, the city has used block grant money to fund El Centro. Last year, the city awarded the group about $32,000 from the funds, said Angel Perez, program director of the San Fernando branch of El Amistad. This year, the city awarded El Centro $10,000.

Perez said past funding provided by the city has covered the agency’s rent and administrative costs. To pay rent this year, Perez said he will have to cut about 20 of the 30 children in the tutoring program.

“This program has enriched my daughter’s life,” Sandra Castillo, a San Fernando resident, told the council Monday. “It has helped her cope. Their counsel helped when she felt she had no hope, when her grades were really down. Now she’s bringing me Bs and Cs. Please reconsider.”

Council members said cuts were made to divide money fairly among other deserving groups, including the North Valley Family Counseling Center, which received $19,500 this year, and San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services Inc., which received $16,174 from the city.

“It’s not that El Centro did anything wrong,” Councilman Doude Wysbeek said. “It’s that the council was just branching out.”

Mayor Joanne Baltierrez challenged parents to raise their own funds to support the center. “You think it’s bad now, it’s probably going to get worse,” said Baltierrez, referring to continued cutbacks in government funding for social services.