Status as Day-Care Facility Questioned : Escondido Boys, Girls Club Cited for Overcrowding

The Boys and Girls Club of Escondido has been cited by state inspectors for operating an overcrowded and understaffed child-care program that some employees have characterized as “chaotic.”

The state Department of Social Services has licensed the Boys and Girls Club to provide day care for up to 154 children, although it says as many as 230 children have been left at the club for child care.

Scores of children roam through the facility with virtually no adult supervision, a state inspector found.

And employees of the club told The Times that, in an effort to deceive state officials about the number of children at the club, about 70 children were taken from the club one day last month and driven to a nearby school ground, so they would not be spotted by a state inspector visiting the club and making a head count.

The club’s executive director, Craig Timmons, called the busing incident “a mistake in judgment” by a person under his command because there was no need to hide the children from inspectors.

He said the child-care flap is over differing interpretations of whether the club is a day-care facility or a recreational facility and the respective state guidelines for each.

For now, the club will accept the Department of Social Services’ preliminary findings of overcrowding and will begin limiting daily enrollment to 154 children, even though the facility was designed to handle about 350, Timmons said Tuesday.

Ruth Ledermann, an evaluator with the Department of Social Services’ community care licensing branch, said she made an unannounced visit to the club in early July because of complaints from staff members that the facility was overcrowded.

“I found a very disorganized facility,” she wrote in her subsequent report. “Five- and 6-year-olds were marginally supervised by staff, which was mostly under age (below 18) and not qualified” as teachers or aides.

She said only one or two teachers were supervising more than 70 5- and 6-year-olds, despite requirements that that every 12 children be supervised by a qualified teacher or that every 15 children be supervised by a teacher and a qualified aide.

She reported that there also were more than 50 children between the ages of 5 and 14 unsupervised by adults, and that “the noise in this organization was overwhelming.”

Ledermann said she determined that the club was functioning as a day-care facility because during the school year children are picked up from their elementary schools in club vans and taken to the club, and that they are required to stay at the club until their parents pick them up later in the afternoon.

“They were not arriving by their own volition, and they were not free to leave when they chose,” she said. And once they were there, she said, there were organized programs for them.

Under that definition, the club was serving as a day-care center and was obligated to limit its enrollment to 154, she said.

The club was given until Monday to act in compliance of the limit or face civil penalties of as much as $200 a day. On Monday, the club wrote that it would cut the enrollment.

Timmons said Tuesday that the Boys and Girls Club of Escondido was the victim of bureaucratic semantics as to its purpose.

He said Boys and Girls Club vans are dispatched to 10 elementary schools in Escondido to pick up those members who wish to visit the club after school, and that those children are free to leave at their own will. Furthermore, children can arrive at the club by their own means, and leave on their own.

Because of that freedom to come and go, he said, the club was a “drop-in” facility in the traditional sense of Boys Clubs around the country, and should not be subjected to the day-care license limit of 154.

He said the club does provide somewhat specialized “child development care” for about 55 children through a state-subsidized program which provides the club with about 25% of its annual funding.

He said he assumed the 154 limit pertained to that development care program and not to the so-called drop-in children.

Cost of membership for drop-in privileges, including van pick-up from school, is $5 a year; a “Juniors Club,” which provides morning and afternoon day care for 5- and 6-year-olds, costs $15 per week for half-day care, and $30 a week for care from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Timmons said the club was not told by the state until July 2 that it was operating in violation of the license. “It was never the intent of the Boys and Girls Club to be interpreted (wholly) in that category, and now the bottom line is, many parents with children won’t have an affordable place to put their children because we’ll have to keep it limited to 154.

“The bigger issue is, what do we do with a facility that was designed in 1981 to handle 350 children?”

Tom Hersant, district manager in San Diego for the state’s community care licensing office, said he has no problem defining the Boys and Girls Club as a day-care facility.

“If the staff drops kids off at the club, and the staff is assigned to care for the children, to supervise them, then those children are receiving day care and the place has to be licensed,” he said.

“It may be true that the kids come and go as they chose, but the fact that they receive care and supervision determines that they (the club) are subject to licensure.”

If the club operated like most other Boys and Girls Clubs around the nation, where no supervision or structured activities were offered but the youngsters could rent a basketball or play games on their own, a license would not be necessary, Hersant said.

“What they have is an oil and water situation,” Hersant said. “He’s taken a licensed program --the child development program through the state--and used that staff to also care for other kids who are just passing through. That pollutes the care and supervision for the development care kids. And that is what has caused the complaints we’ve received.”

One of the club’s former employees, who asked not to be identified, said she was one of the drivers who picked up children at the elementary schools and brought them to the club for the balance of the afternoon.

On June 6, she said, one of the staff supervisors greeted her van at the curb “and told me the kids needed to go to Central School. She had a look on her face like there was a problem inside the building, like maybe a bomb threat or a gas leak.”

She and the other van drivers were “furious” when they later learned that the children were taken to Central School so they would not be included in the state inspector’s head count, she said.

The administration was confronted with a formal written grievance signed by the full-time professional staff at the club, addressing the staff’s concerns that the club was overcrowded.

Timmons told the staff, she said, that “technically we were licensed to handle 225.” When a member of the staff called the state to verify his claim and was told otherwise, the staff discontent grew, leading some to contact The Times in frustration and anger.

Another staff member said she questioned the administration several times about compliance with the state license “and I was reassured that we were. But the overcrowding in the Juniors Club was phenomenal. I’m not a fool; I know when we’re not in compliance.”

A third staff member said when he complained about the overcrowding, “I was essentially told to bug off.”

“When the place reaches 250 (kids), it’s bedlam. Kids are wandering through the building, and outdoors there’s no adult supervision. We’re supposed to be serving the community, but we’re subjecting the kids to substandard conditions. I’m heartsick.”

Lynn Lowe said she considered enrolling two children, ages 5 and 6, in the club for the summer and saw about 75 children already in the Juniors Club room. “The teacher said there would be about 100 kids altogether that day in there. I asked how many more supervisors she had coming in and she said, ‘This is it--me and the two teen-age girls.’ That really turned me off.”

Lynda Janovitz, who handles referrals in Escondido on behalf of the San Diego County Family Day Care Assn., said she has heard complaints from about eight parents about the level of care and supervision at the Boys and Girls Club.

“The parents have told me there’s nothing but utter chaos there, with kids just running around and screaming and yelling,” she said.

Timmons said an incident similar to the June 6 busing “will never happen again. It was a major mistake by someone on our staff.”

Asked about staff morale, Timmons said, “That’s awfully hard to respond to. That’s a perception. Some of our staff is very young; collectively, we’ve had times of high morale and low morale. It’s hard to measure.”

Police Chief Jim Connole, president of the club’s board of directors, said he was frustrated by the state’s ruling.

“These regulations being quoted to us are an improper interpretation. If we can only serve 154 kids, we’re not doing the job we could be for the community. We’re trying to provide a service for working parents by giving their kids an environment where they can play safely, and we’re now being penalized.”

State Department of Education officials said they became aware of the Department of Social Services citation on Monday and will monitor the issue before deciding whether to act on its grant with the club.