District Ends Day-Care Lease

A sharply divided Buena Park school board voted 3 to 2 Monday to cancel a contract with a private day-care center that is leasing four classrooms at Gordon H. Beatty Elementary School.

A facilities planning committee recently reported that the school would need more classrooms to accommodate expected enrollment growth in the fall. As part of the solution, the board also voted to return transfer students from other schools and other districts to their neighborhood campuses.

More than 125 parents, many with their children in tow, packed the meeting room to plead with the school board not to evict ABC Academic Preschool and Day-care Center, which has been leasing four classrooms and a bathroom at the elementary school since 1989.

“Unfortunately, it’s not a perfect world,” said school board President Bob Niccum, who voted with the majority. “It’s not a referendum on the quality of ABC.”

But board member Lloyd G. Davis, who voted against evicting the day-care facility, questioned whether all possibilities had been explored. “If the committee had done a thorough and factual job, the outcome may have been different,” he said.

Parent Sheila Billins, who has two children at the day-care center, was in tears after the vote. “I’m thinking that a board like that should be considering the entire community and all children, but they didn’t do that,” she said. “They took a short-term solution for a long-term problem. The day-care availability in the area is almost nil.”

Based on a review of projected school enrollment for the coming school year, the committee recommended the elementary school acquire three new classrooms and an additional bathroom. If the recommendation passes, the fourth classroom would be used for on-site child care.

For the district, it was a logical choice to take back the classrooms. Refurbishing and buying furniture for them will cost an estimated $48,000, and the district will lose the $66,000 a year that the day-care center was paying in rent, but other options would be far more costly.

For day-care owner Dan Nelson, the parents and 221 students who attend the preschool, however, the issue is an emotional one. They will have to begin looking for another child-care situation as early as June.

Nelson, who says he has done a lot of research on the proposal, says the numbers don’t add up and the district is exaggerating how many students will come in next fall. He says it’s not about his business but the service that he is providing to parents and the community.

“Why remove something that’s still bringing money into the school district?” he asked in an interview.

When Beatty first leased out its classrooms, the district had surplus space at the school and eagerly sought tenants. In 1992, enrollment grew but the school officials, pleased with the preschool’s success, shelled out some money and bought the modular classrooms the preschool is housed in now.

At earlier school board meetings this year, trustees directed district staff to look at other options. Those options included purchasing three modular classrooms and one modular restroom for about $271,000.

“Since 1996, ABC has known that there would be a potential that they would have to leave,” said George B. Cottrell, assistant superintendent of administrative services for the district. The class-size reduction program was first funded that year. Ironically, Cottrell was principal at Beatty when the day-care center first began leasing space.

Another, more costly option is to move the sixth-graders from Beatty into Buena Park Junior High School. Such a move would cost about $500,000 and involve busing the sixth-graders across town.

The school district has four district-sponsored child-care facilities, but ABC is the only one that is leasing.