Short Notice : Burbank Hospital Getting Out of Day-Care Business

Burbank Community Hospital, one of only a handful of employers in the San Fernando Valley area to provide child-care facilities for its workers, is shutting its day-care center in two weeks.

Hospital officials opened the center five years ago, hoping it would help them recruit nurses. It has proven popular among employees and nearby residents, to whom it eventually was opened, and has been filled to capacity, with 23 children enrolled.

But, “during the last four years, nurse recruitment has not been realized from the program,” hospital administrator Jurral Rhee wrote in a letter notifying families using the center that it would close after the first week of September.

The hospital plans to use the space now devoted to child care for offices and storage.

The announcement came as bad news for hospital employees for whom the center has been a convenient and reliable place to keep their children during the day.

Nancy Rodriguez, the center’s director, said parents using the facility are worried that the short notice will make it difficult to place their children in other Burbank day-care centers, many of which have no room. At a meeting Wednesday evening, a group of parents said they will petition hospital officials to reverse their decision.

“They don’t want to see a quality child-care center closing,” Rodriguez said of the parents. “And lots of centers are already full for the fall season. There’s just not any time to find anything.”

Child-care experts say thousands of families in the San Fernando Valley are on waiting lists for child-care centers. More than 300 children of elementary-school age are on waiting lists for the Burbank Unified School District’s subsidized child-care centers.

Among the area’s few employers providing day-care facilities is another hospital, Simi Valley Adventist.

In his letter, Rhee said he and Burbank Community Hospital’s board of trustees determined that “there is a community need for child care but that is not included in the mission of Burbank Community Hospital.”

“I don’t think he realized the impact it would have on our parents,” Rodriguez said.

Comfortable Setting

“The parents who brought their children here felt comfortable because it was operated by a hospital. Some of the schools around the city do have openings, but the parents don’t feel comfortable with them for various reasons.”

Rodriguez, one of four employees of the child-care center, said last week’s announcement “took me totally by surprise.”

Garri Pardo, 22, a teacher at the center, said she is concerned about her imminent layoff.

“I’m taking a class at Valley College, and I need to teach at a child center for the class, so I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Pardo said. “All the other centers are already full.”

The center, a two-story house around the corner from the hospital, is open from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Children there range from 2 1/2 to 6 years old, Rodriguez said.

The enrollment fee is $60 a week for hospital employees and $65 for others.

Employer-provided day care in the Valley area has been plagued by delays and financial woes. Part V, Page 26.