Preschool to close

Marisa O’Neil

A preschool program at Newport Harbor High School will close in

January despite protests by the parents.

The program, which uses high school students to care for the

children, has been operating for 25 years. It is meant to be funded

by the tuition parents pay but has been unable to support itself.

In August, Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials warned

parents that the school would have to meet the same standards as its

state-funded counterparts. Because an enrollment quota has not been

met, and the part-time class lacks a teacher with the proper state

credential, one not required at private preschools, the program will

shut down at the end of January.

Parents offered to pay more to keep the school open, district

spokeswoman Jane Garland said, but the district cannot “be in the

private preschool business.”

“It’s a very nice preschool, and it is licensed, but to truly have

it be developmentally appropriate, we need to meet certain

requirements,” Garland said. “We wanted it to be a high-quality

program, but it’s a very strict requirement and only a part-time

program. To get a qualified teacher to go into it is difficult.”

At Tuesday night’s school board meeting, parents implored district

officials to spare the program. The district would look into it and

get back to parents, Assistant Supt. of Elementary Education Susan

Despenas told them.

“I think they were saying they’d call us just to appease us,” said

Elizabeth Root, whose 4-year-old daughter, Emily, is in the program.

“Looking at the board members’ faces, I don’t think they know the

whole story.”

Parents who bring their children to the three-day-a-week preschool

wonder where their children will go when the programs closes, and the

school’s administrator, Wanda Shelton, worries that the high school

students will lose a valuable learning experience.

High school students in her child development class spend time in

the classroom either interacting with or observing the 3- and

4-year-olds. The high school and the preschool students benefit from

the arrangement, she said.

“I like the interaction with the teenagers,” Root said, adding

that Emily is more outgoing now. “I don’t think that would be the

case if she went to another preschool.”

The district has arranged for the high school students to go to

its three state-funded preschools and several private preschools in

the area, Garland said. Shelton worries that her students will be

confined to observing the children, not interacting with them, and

will lose interest in the program.

As it is now, the students can participate in different learning

activities with the children. Students in the class said that working

with the children will prepare them for eventual parenthood or work

as teachers.

“It’s fun to play with the little kids,” Nick Novotny, 15, said.

“They have a lot of different personalities. Some are calm, and some

are more frantic. But this is good because they think of us more like

friends than teachers.”

After the preschool’s teacher left last year, district officials

decided to make the school adhere to the same standards as its other

preschools, which are free for students who meet low-income

requirements. Teachers at those schools must have child development

permits, which are different from teaching permits required at most

private preschools, Garland said.

Since school started, the class has had a series of substitute

teachers, the latest of whom has offered to stay until the school

closes.

Tuition leaped from $80 to $175 a month in August, and enrollment

dropped from the required 18 children to 11. Those who remain have

said that they would pay more to keep the school open and that other

parents have expressed interest in enrolling their children.

But the district would rather close a school than let it operate

at a different standard, Garland said. The district will work with

the parents to place their children in other schools, she said.

Many other preschools in the area have lengthy waiting lists.

Some, such as Ocean Breeze Children’s Center in Newport Beach and A

Child’s Place Learning Center in Costa Mesa, said they do have spots

available.

Given the choice, parents said they would rather keep their

children where they are. Many feel the class was doomed from the

start of the year.

“School just started two months ago,” Root said. “Now, it’s going

to stop in two months. The kids are here, the facility is here. Why

close it?”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.