Approval Near for College Child-Care Program

After years of delay, Glendale Community College officials this week said they are close to creating a preschool child-care center that would also serve as a teacher training and parent education facility.

College trustees late Wednesday were expected to approve a contract to build a day-care center for 60 youngsters, primarily children of teachers and students but also for the general public. The center is scheduled to be completed by fall, 1990.

“The college has been trying to get a program like this for 25 to 30 years,” said Melita Baumann, associate professor of child development. “The need is dramatic.”

Survey of Needs

The college and the Greater Glendale Child Care Council, a public advocacy group, are conducting a survey to determine child-care needs in the Glendale area. Results are expected to be released in June. Earlier studies by various agencies have estimated that 2,500 to 4,000 preschool children living in Glendale are in need of day care.

Baumann said her phone “rings all the time” from parents in search of child care.

However, she warned that the cost of the program at Glendale College may be high--probably more than $100 per week per child--because many of the staff will be credentialed teachers hired to train other professionals. Baumann said the college is attempting to seek grants and donations to reduce the cost of child care for low- and moderate-income parents.

State Financing

College officials hope that about 90% of the estimated $1-million cost of the child development center will be paid through state funds. A state public works review board is scheduled to hold a hearing Friday to determine the state’s share of the project, said Clarence Wolfe, college director of facilities.

He said the lowest bid for the project--$910,383 by the general contracting firm of Pearson and Johnson--is $122,000 higher than the budget approved by the office of the state chancellor of community colleges.

Wolfe said that “bids came in higher than anticipated because the project was delayed.” He said construction “is over a year behind schedule” because the college has encountered soil stability problems on the construction site and was awaiting the passage of a school bond issue last November.

Wolfe said the facility, to be built on college-owned land at the upper end of the campus near Mountain Street and the Glendale Freeway, would have four classrooms and a central laboratory-teaching area as well as offices, play areas, a kitchen and restrooms.

In all, the facility would cover more than 6,000 square feet. The college’s preschool teaching laboratory is now housed in a 690-square-foot classroom in the school’s administration building, Wolfe said.

Need for Children

Without a child-care center, the school has had “to beg, borrow and steal children” to study in its preschool training program, Baumann said. Students are assigned to work in other child-care facilities in the community to gain first-hand experience.

Unlike most day-care centers that do not accept children under the age of 2 years, 9 months, Glendale College plans to start toddlers in its program as young as 18 months old. Baumann said an understanding of the educational growth of infants will be integral to training student-teachers.

Care of very young children will require a higher-than-normal ratio of staff to children, Baumann said. “We want to make sure there is a good one-on-one training program,” she said, which accounts for part of the high estimated cost of day-care services.

60 Children

Baumann said the program initially will be limited to 15 children in each of four classrooms. Additional classrooms may be added later, if possible.

Jill Larson, coordinator of parent education, said the day-care center also will be used for parenting classes. She said more than 500 adults are enrolled in 22 such classes, which are now held on the college’s Montrose campus.