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.
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