Escondido Club Concedes Child-Care Program Error

Executives of the beleaguered Boys’ and Girls’ Club of Escondido met Friday with state licensing officials and conceded that their popular child care programs were operating in violation of state child care standards for adult supervision.

The question now, club officials say, is whether the club can afford to hire more staff members to supervise the child care operation.

Directors will meet Monday night behind closed doors to discuss that question as well as related “personnel matters,” said Police Chief Jim Connole, president of the club’s board of directors.

The club was cited this month by the state Department of Social Services for being overcrowded and understaffed, including the use of aides under the age of 18. A state inspector on July 2 counted 230 children at the club, despite the license limit of 154, and described adult supervision as woefully inadequate.

Other club employees say as many as 280 children sometimes occupy the club and described the program as “chaotic” because of the lack of adult supervision.

Club officials, on the other hand, had said that while some 55 youngsters were in a formal, state-funded child development course, most of the other youngsters were “drop-in” visitors who were free to come and go for recreational purposes and therefore should not be counted as part of the child care program.

Tom Hersant, district manager in San Diego for the community care licensing office of the Department of Social Services, said Friday the club was told it could provide child care for “significantly more” than 154 children if it were to hire additional staff so the adult-to-child ratio will fall within prescribed state standards.

The club also would be required to separate the child care program, with its adult supervision, from the more traditional drop-in programs which typically offer little or no adult supervision.

In that way, Hersant said, the adult supervision assigned to the child care program would not be diluted by watching over the drop-in youngsters. That was the main complaint by the state earlier this month in ordering the club to limit attendance at the club to 154.

“They (club officials) were telling us, ‘Oh my God, we didn’t realize what we were doing wrong,’ and we were telling them, ‘Oh my God, we want you to understand,’ ” Hersant said.

Connole said there was a “misinterpretation on the part of Craig (Timmons, the club’s executive director) on what we could or couldn’t do. Originally, we were a drop-in center where a kid could come in, pick up a basketball, play a while and leave.

“But since then, the club has tried to do more and we’ve misinterpreted state law. So now we’re paying the piper so we can get back into compliance,” Connole said.

Among the issues to be discussed Monday night is the cost of hiring additional staff so more than 154 youngsters can be admitted in the club’s child-care program.

Following the state’s crackdown this week, more than 70 youngsters have been turned away from the club in the morning, sending their parents into a tizzy trying to find child care elsewhere so they could still go to work.

The child-care program is popular because of the well-equipped facility and the cost of care--$30 a week for all-day care of 5- and 6-year-olds, and only $5 a year for older youngsters for “drop-in” membership. Some parents have reportedly utilized the “drop-in” service as an all-day, virtually free, child-care service.