Panel Spares Burbank School Day-Care Centers : Education: Advisory committee’s report avoids recommending that 10 on-campus facilities close to free up classrooms. Some parents remain upset.

An advisory committee studying burgeoning elementary school enrollment in Burbank will not recommend the elimination of campus day-care centers as a means of alleviating crowded classrooms, committee members said this week.

“We included the option in our report because it’s part of our work,” said Linda Matsumoto, a member of the Enrollment Options Committee. “But it’s not recommended by this committee.”

Matsumoto made the announcement after a heated meeting Tuesday night between parents and members of the Burbank Board of Education at Burroughs High School.

Attended by more than 60 parents, the meeting was held to address the concerns of parents and day-care center employees who were worried that the committee was considering the elimination or relocation of day-care and preschool programs.

The Burbank Unified School District operates day-care and preschool programs on 10 elementary school campuses. Now that the district is wrestling with the issue of crowding, questions have been raised about the use of classroom space for day-care centers, Burbank Supt. Arthur Pierce said.

The 50-member Enrollment Options Committee was appointed earlier this year to study enrollment in Burbank and looked into the day-care center issue as part of its work.

But instead of recommending elimination of the programs, the committee is suggesting that classroom space now used by day-care programs be used by schools only when the day-care centers are not operating.

“It’s not going to affect the program at all,” Matsumoto told parents.

Pierce, who called parent concerns needless, said the committee does not have the power to implement any of its recommendations.

But many of the parents were upset that the committee even raised the day-care issue, and many said they were angry because they were not informed of the committee meetings.

“I feel really offended that I knew nothing about it,” Cindy Gregos told board members Tuesday night. “We should have been informed from day one.”

Audrey Hanson, vice president of the Board of Education, said that it was not the practice of the board to inform parents of exploratory meetings and that the committee had to look at the “full picture.”

“When you make a decision, you have to look at all your options,” Hanson said. “You have to look at the entire spectrum.”

The full committee is expected to submit its findings to the board by April 15. Any changes would not be implemented in the coming school year, and would be made only after public discussion and a vote of the board, Pierce said.