PACOIMA : Donation to Fund Child-Care Center

The Los Angeles Unified School District has formally accepted a $1-million donation that will fund a new child day-care and parent center at a Pacoima junior high school.

Scheduled to open on the Maclay Junior High School campus early next year, the center will serve up to 50 children between the ages of 3 and 5, officials said. The facility will also provide parenting classes for low-income residents, with priority given to those who work or attend local adult schools.

The donation was given by the New York-based Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation, a philanthropic organization that awarded a grant for a similar facility three years ago in Mission Hills. The current $1-million donation, approved by the board of education last week, will cover the purchase of portable structures and the first year of operation.

In the second year, the district will begin assuming the costs of running the facility--about $300,000 annually, officials said.

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