Hawthorne Board Keeps Preschool Open

A state-subsidized preschool for needy families in Hawthorne will continue to operate almost as it has for the past 48 years, despite a funding crisis, Hawthorne School District trustees said this week.

After listening to emotional testimony from nearly two dozen parents, who feared the center would be closed because of funding problems, trustees decided Wednesday to cut two full-time staff positions to keep the Childrens Center on Washington Street open.

The trustees said the staff reductions would cut the program’s expenditures this year by about $50,000.

To ensure the center remains within its budget, the trustees also voted to limit the district’s future support of the program to minimal, indirect costs, including use of the district’s gardeners and maintenance crews. The state provides the bulk of the funding for the center, which is operated by the school district.

“We’re still not out of the woods,” said Trustee Buddy Takata. “We just passed a resolution saying the Childrens Center will not lose any money, but what if the roof leaks? . . . We need your help, we need you to go to your state legislators, beat up on them a little, to provide more funding for (state-subsidized child care).”

Parents with children enrolled at the center had mixed reactions to the district’s decision. Although relieved the center will stay open, some expressed concern about how the loss of a cook and full-time teacher would affect the program.

“I am delighted that the center is going to stay open,” said Martha Canet, who is studying to be a registered nurse and who has a 3-year-old son at the preschool. “I just wish no changes at all were going to be made, because the nutrition these children get now is excellent.”

During the meeting, several parents told the trustees how difficult their lives would become without the center. Several Spanish-speaking parents said through a translator that they wouldn’t be able to afford private child care and would be forced to give up their jobs if the center went out of business.

But, throughout the evening, district officials insisted closing the center was never an option. They said their goal was only to reduce expenditures for the preschool, which is primarily funded by the state, or to find another program to replace it.

The district began supplementing state funding for the center in 1987 when costs to run the program began to exceed the state allocation of $225,000 a year. But district officials, facing their toughest budget crunch in recent history, became concerned when they discovered they would be spending $58,000 during the 1991-92 school year to help keep the center afloat.