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Arroyo Grande cuts preschool, child care despite protests from parents. 'It breaks my heart'

Tribune - 5/2/2023

May 2—Parents can no longer rely on the city of Arroyo Grande for certain kinds of child care after the City Council voted to cut preschool and other programs.

The Arroyo Grande City Council voted unanimously April 24 to end the Parks and Recreation Department's before- and after-school child care programs, along with its preschool program for children age 3 to 5.

According to Recreation Services Director Sheridan Bolken, budgetary restrictions, declines in enrollment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing human resources and staffing issues made the programs financially unfeasible to operate past fall 2023.

"We've been talking about these issues for years and years and years and years," Arroyo Grande Mayor Caren Ray Russom said at the April 24 meeting. "It breaks my heart, but I don't see a path forward."

More than 20 parents who attended the meeting voiced their frustration and disappointment with the decision to shutter the programs.

"I'm not going to belabor the value of the program, but it really seems like the decision is primarily a financial one," one community member said during public comment. "I'm so disappointed in the lack of community outreach. We didn't know this was happening."

Which Arroyo Grande city programs are being cut and why?

Established in 1976, the Parks and Recreation Department-run preschool program was the most affordable in South County, Bohlken said

At the most, summer registration costs a little more than $200 per student, Arroyo Grande City Manager Whitney McDonald said.

According to Bohlken, enrollment in the preschool program dropped significantly during the height of the pandemic, though it's been on the rise in recent years.

This year, 44 children are enrolled in the preschool program, she said.

The Mark M. Millis Community Center has been the home of the Recreation Services Department and its preschool program since the mid-1990s, when the Lucia Mar Unified School District donated the facility to the city, Bohlken said,

Unfortunately, she said, the 1970s-era building is reaching the end of its "useful life."

Bohlken said it would cost $6 million to fully replace the structure.

The preschool program was running at an annual deficit of around $32,000. Combined with the costs of the before- and after-school child care, the Recreation Services Department was losing around $80,000 each year by keeping the programs active.

The preschool program has broken even only twice since the 2012-13 school year: during the 2015-16 and 2018-19 school years.

Had Arroyo Grande voters voted to pass Measure D-22 in November and raise the city's sales tax by 1%, the money generated by the tax increase might have been enough to keep the programs open in some capacity, officials said during the City Council meeting April 24.

"The impact of these programs is indisputable," Russom said. "We asked you for money, and you said 'No.' That was heartbreaking."

Parents respond to preschool, child care cuts

Nicole Shipley, whose children are 5, 3 and 10 months old, said she was looking forward to sending her youngest children to the city's summer preschool program.

Her children attend Arroyo Grande Montessori School during the school year. However, because Shipley and her husband both work full-time, they rely on city programs in the summer.

"For that 3-to-5 age group, there are no options at all in this area," Shipley told The Tribune. "The city preschool program that they just cut is the only option in the summer."

Once her children reach school age, Shipley said, she had hoped to take advantage of the before- and after-school child care programs.

That won't be possible now due to the City Council's decision to eliminate the city's child care programs.

Niccola Nelson's 5-year-old daughter Ainsley has attended the preschool program for the past two years.

Nelson, who works for the city as a yoga instructor for seniors, said she heard about the program from her students, who have grandchildren and great-grandchildren enrolled in the program.

Nelson said she originally wasn't going to send her daughter to the program because she "didn't really think it was too necessary."

However, she said, the different between kids who attend preschool and does who don't is "night and day."

Attending preschool has taught her daughter spelling, basic reading and even empathy — skills Nelson said other kids Ainsley's age don't have.

Nelson said she and other parents were shocked the City Council did not look into other alternatives to keep the program running, such as finding another place to host the program or raising fees.

"Why kill such a long-standing tradition?" Nelson said. "It doesn't make sense to me, in this town that is all about values and community and family — it doesn't jive."

Jackie Ralph, whose 4-year-old daughter Edith is currently enrolled in the preschool program, said she attended the city's preschool when she was a child.

Because her daughter was born just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Ralph said she was happy to see her daughter learning to socialize with other children.

"She was growing up with being at home and only having contact with family members and people that we would hang out with," Ralph said. "That, as a skill, I think is important — just getting the feeling of learning."

Now, Ralph said, she'll have to find another place for her daughter to receive education and socialization, which will be difficult.

"We're in for a struggle this summer, looking for some way that we can get her in," Ralph said. "She probably won't get a full year of preschool because of it."

Shipley noted that local preschools tend to be far more expensive than the city's program and fill up fast. In fact, she said, many of those preschools are already fully booked for next year.

"You've heard the term food desert — this is a child care desert, for sure," Shipley said.

City Council's move could make childcare shortage worse

According to data from the most recent California Child Care Portfolio, 36% children under the age of 12 with parents in the labor force did not have access to a licensed child care space in San Luis Obispo County in 2021.

One of the biggest problems for these programs is staffing, said Shana Paulson, child care resource connection director at Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County (CAPSLO).

According to Paulson, many of the child care providers in San Luis Obispo County operate at less than their licensed capacity due to insufficient staffing.

"We believe there are a number of different elements to the problem," Paulson said. "We know this is hard work — work that people usually have a passion for — and we're having a hard time finding people who want to continue to do this."

Paulson said her program would work with the city and parents of the remaining 44 children currently enrolled in the preschool program to find new child care.

What's next for child care in South County?

With the city's child care programs winding down, McDonald said the YMCA will take over before- and after-school care at local schools that already offered the service.

The city was already struggling to adequately staff and fund child care services in the past year as the Lucia Mar Unified School District began expanding its before- and after-school care programs, McDonald said.

That expansion stressed the city's capacity for child care, which led to a partnership with the local YMCA. Branch Elementary School turned over its before- and after-school programs to the YMCA last year, and Ocean View Elementary was already set to do the same for the 2023-24 school year, according to Bohlken.

"Those changes were already in the works, and again, the program is going to continue to be offered to the public by the YMCA, so there won't be any kind of end in that availability for the community," McDonald said.

The 20 part-time Parks and Recreation Department staff who were responsible for running the preschool program will be laid off, McDonald said, though in an area with severe child care and preschool shortages, she expected there would be plenty of opportunities for the staff.

The loss of the preschool program does creates a gap between the current system and the state's universal preschool system coming in the next few years.

"I think we're in for an interesting time," Paulson said. "The transition won't be the smoothest ... It's clear that families really liked what they had in their community."

In the meantime, parents expressed concern over their children's educational future.

"I think that the downstream effects to cutting this program can't really be measured on a financial statement," Shipley said. "We're talking about displacing kids in preschool — they might not go to preschool because this program doesn't exist, or working parents might have to take a little bit of time off work. I think it affects a lot more than just an $80,000 deficit."

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