Playground Hours Aimed at Latchkey Pupils Voted

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to extend after-school playground programs two hours, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., for thousands of students citywide.

The unanimous vote, coming after two hours of debate, would affect 301 elementary and junior high schools that are more than three blocks from a recreational facility that offers similar programs. Although the program is aimed at providing supervised care at school playgrounds for so-called latchkey children whose parents work, officials said the activities will be open to all students.

The vote comes two months after the council approved a plan proposed by Mayor Tom Bradley that would funnel $2.1 million in redevelopment funds toward after-school care and tutoring programs at 10 city schools. Bradley first proposed the after-school program in his State of the City address last spring and said that it should be implemented in all of the more than 400 district elementary schools.

Source of Plan

The playground measure approved by the council on Tuesday, however, was a council members’ initiative rather than the mayor’s. At the time Bradley spoke of his after-school plan, Councilwoman Gloria Molina said there was a more immediate need for playground activities in areas where no nearby recreational facilities existed. Last August, she won approval for a five-school playground experiment in her district that cost $50,500 to keep activities going until 6:30 p.m.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky subsequently proposed extending Molina’s plan citywide. School district officials said that 301 schools would qualify under the Yaroslavsky plan.

Although council members debated the matter for more than two hours Tuesday, they ultimately agreed to allocate $1.8 million to launch the program. Certain details, however, would be left to the Los Angeles Unified School District to work out.

Specifically, the $1.8 million will pay two staff people per campus to work an extra two hours for 30 days at the 301 campuses. The school district, meanwhile, will be required to provide $150,000 for insurance and custodial costs associated with the extended playground effort.

In a compromise move, Molina won backing for additional playground hours during the weekend in areas where parks do not exist near a school.

At the end of the 30-day period, district officials will give a progress report that will help determine if the playground effort will be extended. The schools will begin to offer the extended hours in about two weeks, officials said.

“Parents will now have a free, supervised alternative for their kids’ after-school and weekend activities,” Yaroslavsky said.

The plan requires Bradley’s signature to be put into effect.