Much-Needed Preschool Loses Its Lease

A Fountain Valley preschool that cares for homeless and foster children while their parents work and attend job training programs lost its lease Thursday, administrators said.

An Orange County municipal judge ordered Special Children’s Connection at Bushard Street and Talbert Avenue to vacate the property for failing to pay $18,000 in rent for the last three months and for paying late in previous months, said Regina Markwardt, executive director. Rossier Properties of Garden Grove, which handles leasing of the site, had sued to recover the rent, she said.

Before going to court, she offered $15,000 of the amount owed but was refused. The court ordered the school to pay the balance of the rent as well as to move.

School administrators expect to receive a writ today ordering them to vacate in five days, she said. After that, she said, they have no alternative location to care for the 40 children who use the facility.

“There is no other place for them,” Markwardt said. “The parents would have to stop working and going to school to care for their children.”

Ten employees of the preschool, which opened in January 1997, stand to lose their jobs as well, she said.

About half of the children live in homeless shelters with their mothers, many of whom are victims of domestic abuse or drug addiction, she said. The others live with foster parents or in low-income households in which the parents cannot afford conventional child care.

The youngsters cannot stay with their mothers during the day because most homeless shelters require tenants to work or attend school.

At the preschool--a classroom complex with cribs, toys, tiny desks and pet doves in a cage--teacher Gina Wood said Thursday, “It’s sad because I really don’t know where these children will go. What options do they have? I was hoping a miracle would happen and we’d get pulled out of this.”

Lucy Guild of Huntington Beach brings her foster child to the center and has used the school for other children she has cared for.

“It’s been such a blessing,” she said. “The children need the attention and love. My children love being over there. There are hardly any other places out there that care for children with special needs.”

The center receives $60 to $100 a week for each child. The amount depends on how much parents and shelter directors can pay. Other funding comes from grants and donations. That income totals about $6,000 a month--the same amount as the center’s monthly rent. Payroll is another $9,000.

“It works out that we can either pay staff or pay rent,” Markwardt said.

Special Children’s Connection is one of three groups that lease space at the site, which is owned by Fountain Valley School District, Markwardt said.

“We don’t deny that we owe the money, but we did try to pay a good portion of it,” she said. “Even if the judge gave us 30 days to find another place it would have been more compassionate.”

Directors of Rossier Properties, the leasing company, did not return phone calls Thursday seeking comment.

Fountain Valley City Councilman Chuck Conlosh confirmed that Judge Mary Ericcsen ordered the day-care center to vacate the property.

“She entered a judgment against the preschool,” he said.

Conlosh said he understood the property owner’s position but hopes to save the preschool. He appealed to the community to find a temporary home for the school.

He said of Markwardt: “She’s worked so hard, and it’s sad to have it end up this way.”