King’s Birthday Leaves Parents Scrambling for Last-Minute Child Care

Martin Luther King Jr. may have been one of the most influential Americans, but the holiday honoring him is still trying to catch on, especially among working parents with kids in school.

When some parents take their children to school today, they will discover that the schools are closed--and so are the child-care centers they rely on.

Some working parents will “scramble like crazy” when they take their children to school and find locked doors, said Bobbie Dupre, owner and director of an Encinitas child-care center.

Dupre’s center, Care for Me Today, is licensed for 23 children, but she usually keeps about seven spaces open daily for “drop-ins,” as she calls them.

“Parents tend not to read signs,” she said. “Schools send home the schedules, but parents read them at the beginning of the year and don’t look at them again.

“They get the child ready for school, pack up the lunch, then they get to the school only to find that it’s closed. They are supposed to call ahead, but they usually just rush right over here. . . . If I have the room for them, I take them.”

But at least four parents have read the schedules. As of Friday, four of Dupre’s open slots had been reserved for today.

Some parents, including Sandra Alcoser, 44, will leave their children with a relative. Alcoser has to be at her factory job at 7:30 a.m., so Gustavo, 6, will spend the day with either his grandmother or an older sister.

The boy attends Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Logan Heights. His mother usually drops him off at the children’s center, a few steps away from the school, at 7 a.m. and picks him up about 10 hours later. “When he’s in school, I’m able to bring him here,” she said.

The King center is one of 27 city centers that provide child care for about 2,100 children, said Pascual Martinez, child development director for San Diego Unified School District. About 850 youngsters attend kindergarten preparation classes at 22 sites, he said.

Martinez said parents have not complained about the centers being closed on the holiday.

“They would complain if we did something unexpectedly,” he said. “But we give them a schedule at the beginning of the year.”

A sampling of programs providing child care for other city schools finds:

* Social Advocacy for Youth, which provides care at 12 schools for about 360 children, will be closed today. There have not been enough requests that the centers remain open for the holiday, said Susan Arentson, unit supervisor of the program.

“Occasionally, some parents express concern,” she said. “I can venture to guess that most parents take the day off or make other arrangements with a relative or a neighbor.”

* The Peninsula YMCA provides an after-school program for about 155 children at four schools in Pacific Beach and Point Loma, said Doug Jones, program director.

On holidays, the Y plans “holiday fun days,” Jones said. Today, they will take about 35 children roller-skating in Chula Vista, and perhaps, to a movie.

“A lot of parents are happy that we provide an option” when schools are closed, Jones said.

* Classic Kids’ three Mira Mesa school sites will be open, serving about 198 children, said Nancy Ajemian, executive director of Harmonium Inc., the nonprofit group that runs the program.

“We’ve been able to work through the difficulties of staying open on holidays,” Ajemian said. “A lot of parents are not accustomed to the holiday. It’s awfully hard on parents that have to work.”

In Solana Beach, the district’s three elementary schools and its Child Development Center, which serves about 200 children, will be closed.

Parents bringing their children to the center last week declined to give their names. But one father said that he would care for his baby on the holiday. A mother said she had planned ahead: “My husband is taking care of them.”

Some of the children who attend the five elementary schools in the Carlsbad Unified School District participate in “Scampers,” a recreational program run by the Boys and Girls Club that serves about 400 preschoolers through sixth-graders.

The schools out of which the program is run will be closed, but the clubhouse in Carlsbad Village will be open, said Dawn Fenner, program coordinator.

Special holiday activities are planned: A singer will perform at the clubhouse, and there will be a trip to Chuck E Cheese’s for pizza and a movie.

The child-care programs run by Child Development Associates in National City, Chula Vista and El Cajon will be open today, said Charlene Tressler, executive director of the organization.

Tressler said the centers serve 228 school-age children in those cities and 245 preschoolers in Chula Vista and El Cajon.

“It’s not that we overlook the holiday,” Tressler said. “It’s that so many of the businesses do not give the day off. . . . We try to serve the working parent,” she said.

But just finding someone to take care of the children is no guarantee of peace of mind.

Francine Gallegos, 32, is a single mother who works as a word processor in the San Diego mayor’s office. She is not working today, and she is glad because the last time she had to get a baby-sitter for her 4-year-old son, Patrick, “It was rough.”

“She (the baby-sitter) didn’t speak English, and Patrick doesn’t speak Spanish. . . . He was very mischievous. He ruined the Christmas tree, broke the phone, broke the stereo needle and ate more than he should have.”

Other parents, however, are fortunate enough to have the ultimate solution. They have the day off.

Times staff writer Terry Rather contributed to this article.