TUSTIN : Day-Care Subsidy a Respite for Parents

The City Council’s decision this week to subsidize fee increases at the Child Development Center for four months brought a sigh of relief to Toni Reid.

“Money’s tight right now,” said Reid, a single Tustin mother of four. “We’ve got taxes to pay and Christmas just came.”

Because the preschool has helped her son, Jeffrey, 4, learn to talk and interact with other children since he entered it eight months ago, Reid did not want him to leave. But with all of her children in day-care programs, the fee increase will stretch an already tight budget.

The fees for the preschool, which serves 41 3- to 5-year-olds at Lambert School, will go from an average of $10.50 per day to $15 per day, when a nonprofit group takes over the operation on March 1.

Mothers At Work, a nonprofit group with child-care programs in Lakewood and Garden Grove, also plans to discontinue the part-time program. The parents of 12 children who attend part-time would have to pay for full-time care without the city subsidy.

The city will offer subsidies for four months to parents who write a letter to the mayor saying the increase would cause a financial hardship and to parents who have children enrolled part time.

Reid and another parent, Ann Humke, said Tuesday they plan to write letters to the mayor.

Humke, whose 3-year-old daughter Angela attends the preschool, said she would have had to quit her job without the subsidy.

The council’s decision was prompted by complaints from Humke and other parents after staff members signed a contract with Mothers At Work in December. Parents complained that the fee increases would hit them in the middle of the school year, when there are few spots available in other programs.

City staff said the decision to hire an outside group was made after the independent contractors who teach at the preschool approached the city and requested health and other benefits, which they do not receive. Several teachers said Monday they did not care about the benefits, but wanted taxes taken out of their paychecks.

The benefits are expensive to provide and even without them, the program has already been losing about $2,400 a month during the last three months, staff estimated. Under the contract with Mothers At Work, all employees will have taxes taken from their checks and the full-time instructors will receive benefits packages, staff said.

Although the city notified parents of the increases in late March, Councilwoman Ursula E. Kennedy said she did not think that was sufficient notice for young mothers on tight budgets.