Parents Protest After Abrupt Closure of Day-Care Center

When Richard Manriquez dropped off his daughter JoAnne, 5, for preschool at the Sunset Day-Care Center last Thursday, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

But shortly after 10 a.m., federal marshals entered classrooms at the center and ushered about 100 children--including 17 infants--to the cafeteria to wait for their parents while the marshals padlocked the rest of the building.

When Manriquez picked up JoAnne later that afternoon, he, along with the other parents, was told he would have to find a new day-care center. Likewise, the center’s 30 preschool teachers and aides were told they would have to find new jobs.

Sunset Day-Care Center had been evicted.

In the week since, parents and teachers have expressed anger at the center’s operator, New Vistas Systems Inc., for failing to warn them of the impending closure.

“I’m still pretty peeved about the whole thing,” Manriquez said. “This school seemed pretty well established, and they just shut down on us. We all have to literally beat the bushes looking for another school so we can get back to work.”

Although the marshals’ arrival caught parents and teachers off guard, it was the culmination of a two-year effort by the West Covina Unified School District to oust the center from the Del Norte school site, where it had operated since 1978, said Jim Duncan, the district’s assistant superintendent of business services.

New Vistas owner Albert Jordon, a former West Covina planning commissioner and City Council candidate, was unavailable for comment.

However, his wife, Sarah, co-owner of the firm, said the couple “had an idea” the center would be closed at least three days before the eviction, but opted not to tell any of the parents.

‘Been Through This Before’

“I thought it was in my better judgment not to inform them in hopes that we could prevent the eviction,” Sarah Jordon said. “We’ve been through this before--this is probably the third time. Each time we were able to get a court order.”

That explanation does not hold much water with parents.

“We are the ones who are literally paying the bills for this man Jordon, and the least he could do is let us know what was going on,” Manriquez said. “It seems like it would be just normal business ethics for him to say, ‘These are the problems were having and here’s what we’re trying to do about it.’ ”

The eviction process began in March, 1984, when the school board voted not to renew New Vistas Systems’ $60,000 annual lease. At the time, district officials said the company owed $8,000 in back rent.

The center was ordered to vacate the school by July 1, 1984. During the past two years, the center had lived on borrowed time while New Vistas attorneys fought the eviction in court.

In November, 1985, New Vistas filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S Bankruptcy Code, in part, Sarah Jordon said, as a means of further forestalling the eviction.

Despite being sued by the district for unlawful detainer for remaining in the school after the eviction date, the firm has made its lease payments on time, Sarah Jordon said.

Court Agreement

“Perhaps in the beginning when business was real slow, the rent was not paid on time,” she said. “We went to court, and the judge said we should work out an agreement, and the agreement was that we pay the rent on time. That’s what we’ve been doing.”

Time finally ran out on the center on June 23, Duncan said, when a federal bankruptcy court judge ruled that the district was entitled to repossess the school site.

However, parents and teachers said they were kept in the dark about this decision, as they had been about the legal battle over the center’s use of the school site.

Barbara Silva, the center’s director, said that she did not tell parents and teachers about the ruling because the owners had been able to avoid eviction more than once during the past two years.

“We at the facility were unaware that the situation was as desperate as it was,” Silva said. “I spoke with Mr. Jordon June 23, and I was assured that his attorney was going to receive a temporary restraining order to keep the school open. . . . We were waiting to hear from Jordon. He never showed up.”

In addition to causing many parents to miss work, some say, the center’s abrupt closure was a needless and traumatic disruption of the lives of their children. Sandra Goldblatt said that the disruption caused her 2 1/2-year-old foster son to suffer a relapse of a speech impediment.

“His speech was clearing up real well, and now he’s back to baby talk,” Goldblatt said. “They put him in the cafeteria, in a very hot, stuffy room. It was a very unnerving experience, and he’s still in a traumatic situation from it.”

Teachers and aides at the center said that they would have appreciated some notice that they might lose their jobs.

‘Displaced Workers’

“We all went down to the unemployment office together--they said we’re called displaced workers now,” said teacher Millie Martinez. “It’s really hard for us to find work now because it’s summer and most of the centers already have their staffs set.”

A group of parents and teachers protested Monday outside Bel-Aire Preschool Childcare and Development Center in West Covina, another facility owned by the Jordons.

The group carried picket signs and warned parents picking up their children that “they could be next” to find themselves suddenly without day-care services.

Director Mary Jean Corral said she has been assuring parents that the Bel Aire center, which occupies a building owned by the Jordons, would not suffer the same fate as Sunset Day Care.

Confronted Owner

“I have confronted Sarah Jordon and asked her if we were in danger of this happening over here,” Corral said. “She said to the best of her knowledge, we weren’t.”

Any money owed to parents who paid day-care and preschool fees for July (about $200 per student) will be refunded within two weeks, Sarah Jordon said.

She said she hopes to reopen the Sunset Day-Care Center at another location, but that suitable sites are hard to find.

New Vistas Systems Inc. opened the Sunset Day-Care Center in 1977 and moved it to the Del Norte school site in 1978, Jordon said.

Technical Center Closed

The firm operated New Vistas Technical Institute next to the day-care center until the vocational training center was closed last year, she said.

In 1983, the state filed suit to close the technical institute after two foreign students claimed that they paid deposits to the school that were not refunded after they decided not to enroll.

New Vistas Systems was temporarily suspended as a corporation by the state in 1976, 1980 and 1981 for noncompliance with state Franchise Tax Board requirements.

The firm was suspended again in 1984 and has yet to be reinstated, meaning it is not protected as a corporation under state law, according to the secretary of state’s office.