School District Given $1 Million for Pacoima Day-Care Center

The Los Angeles Unified School District has received a $1-million grant from a philanthropic foundation to establish a day-care center on the campus of Maclay Junior High School in Pacoima, district officials announced Monday.

Scheduled to open early next year, the center will serve up to 50 children between the ages of 3 and 5 and will be designed for low-income residents who work or attend local adult-education classes, said Conchita Puncel, director of the district’s child development division. Parents will also be able to receive occupational training at the site.

Money for the project is being provided by the New York-based Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation, a charitable organization that made a similar donation three years ago for a day-care facility at the district’s North Valley Occupational Center in Mission Hills. The district operates 91 such day-care centers, although only the Mission Hills facility now caters expressly to 3- to 5-year-olds.

The grant is part of an innovative attempt to turn Maclay into a nexus of social services for community residents, Puncel said. In January, a new elementary school, or “primary center,” encompassing kindergarten through third grade, will also open on campus, allowing children from the day-care center to go directly into classes when they reach school age.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for a unique program,” said Maclay Principal Leonard F. George.

The grant will pay for purchase of portable structures at the site and the first year of operations, Puncel said. In the second year, the district will gradually begin assuming the costs of running the facility--about $300,000 annually, officials estimate--using state and federal funds as well as money from fees the center will begin collecting when it opens.