Seal Beach Council Cancels After-School Child Care

Saying they cannot justify operating an unlicensed child-care service, City Council members voted this week to close an after-school program in which 45 children are already enrolled for the fall.

The children, 40 from Seal Beach and five from outside the city, will be transferred to a similar but potentially more costly program operated through McGaugh School, officials said.

The city’s discontinued program charged $125 monthly regardless of the number of hours spent at the facility. The McGaugh School program, operated by Los Alamitos Unified School District, charges a minimum of $110 monthly.

Mayor Gwen Forsythe said the city cannot continue to operate its Marina Center after-school program without state licensing, and obtaining a license would require costly upgrades and repairs to the Marina community center.

The city “doesn’t have the money needed to make the changes,” Forsythe said.

The after-school program was launched two years ago, with state licensing applications filed and approval pending. Through the licensing process, however, city officials learned of the costly modifications that would be required at the Marina Center.

The council approved the closure of its after-school program with the stipulation that space is available at McGaugh School for each child now enrolled through the city. “If space isn’t available, this will have to come back” to the council, Forsythe said.

The one full-time employee of the after-school program and its three part-time workers will either be reassigned to other areas in the Recreation Department or be laid off, City Manager Keith Till said.

Till said he will verify that there is enough space at McGaugh School to absorb the children displaced by the city program’s closure. Earlier queries indicated that the school would have room for at least 50 more youngsters, he said.

Till said Community Development Block Grant funds used to help cover low-income families’ child-care costs at the city’s center should transfer to the McGaugh program.