Dogs, skaters over children?

I am writing to you as I have just been told that my daughter and her education have fallen short, next to dogs and skateboards. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, but I would like to think that civic leaders would care more about future taxpayers and voters. My 4-year-old daughter attends the Tiny Tot program at a Crescenta Valley Park. Tiny Tots is an enrichment program that helps prepare children (ages 3-5) for kindergarten. The parents of this program were recently informed that this full-time childcare program was being cut down to 12 hours per week at both the Crescenta Valley and the Loma Alta locations. The reasoning is that the facility does not have licensing to be a day care. Problem? Great. Let’s find a solution.

All ideas from parents for a solution have been shot down. Yet I have watched, over the summer, the creation of a brand new dog park at the same location where my daughter goes to school. A $645,000 dog park, to be exact, with plans to build a skate park next. I was told by several officials that the teachers would not be affected by this change; now they have been forced to work 12-16 hours a week. How are they supposed to support themselves now?

This program is being set up to fail and the children and teachers are the ones suffering. My daughter has excelled tremendously since her start with Tiny Tots and she loves everything about the program. Why are there funds for dogs and skateboards, but not children? Children are the future, right? But hey, at least the dogs and skaters will have somewhere to go.

Irene Salazar

Tujunga