Facts don’t support closing preschool

John Brazelton

My name is John Brazelton. I am the father of a 4-year-old who

attends the preschool program at Newport Harbor High School. As you

are well aware, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District

administration has decided to close the program in late January.

I am also a faculty member at Newport Harbor High, and as such, I

have been attempting to keep my distance from this issue. However,

the editorial piece run in last Sunday’s edition has put me over the

edge (“District’s decision is in students’ best interest”).

Given the abundance of half-truths in the piece, it is obvious

that the author is a spokesperson for Newport-Mesa Unified School

District administration. Allow me to fill in some of the critical

information that was conveniently left out:

1. “The program was meant to be funded by the tuition parents pay

but has been unable to support itself. The district, therefore, has

been footing the bill for years”:

As soon as the parents found out that the program was running in

the red, we volunteered to pay higher tuition to keep the program

afloat. The district said no.

2. “ ... it is not the district’s job to run private day care

programs ... the school district’s first priority must be to students

in its kindergarten through 12th-grade classes.”

If the school district funds are meant to benefit only the

kindergarten through 12th-grade students, not preschoolers, then why

does the district have a very well-paid administrator in charge of

early childhood education overseeing all of the district preschools?

The shortfall which district has covered (and parents were willing to

pay, see #1 above) must certainly be a small fraction of that

administrators salary.

3. “ ... the school would have to meet the same standards as

state-funded preschools.”

Simply put, why? If the program is self-funded, why increase the

overhead by requiring the hiring of a higher paid instructor which is

only required for state-funded preschools? You would have to ask the

administrator mentioned above for the answer on that one. The vast

majority of area preschools do not have a teacher with that

certification, yet somehow they seem to flourish. Also, the parents

are all very satisfied with the program in its current configuration.

Too bad nobody ever asked us.

4. “The closure will not affect the high school students’ hands on

learning experience since they will be sent to other preschools in

Newport-Mesa. “

Who’s paying for that? Surely the cost of repeatedly shuttling

four classes of high school students (that’s 100+ kids) to and from

other sites is significantly greater than the shortfall which the

district has covered (and parents were willing to pay, see #1 above).

And I won’t even get into the liability issue that all of that travel

time will present.

There are more than 100 students who enrolled in childhood

development to interact with and observe preschoolers on site, on a

regular basis. Now they will be walking or riding a bus to another

site to do so. How often? How much time will they really get to

observe/interact? Who is going to look them in the eyes and tell them

that “they are not being affected.” Give me a break!

5. “ ... the district will work with the parents of the preschool

children to find an alternative.”

In the letter parents received confirming the decision to close

the preschool, a list of other Newport-Mesa area preschools was

included. It was identical to the list I found in less than three

seconds by performing a Google search on-line. I, and other parents,

found the majority of those facilities to be full, and those that

were not are significantly more expensive than the Newport Harbor

High School preschool (even at a higher rate to make up for the

shortfall).

At the most recent district board meeting, parents spoke to this

issue. We were told that Susan Despenas would be contacting us to

help us “find an alternative.” That was two weeks ago. I have yet to

hear from her.

As a parent of a child in the preschool, I have been more than

pleased with the program. My daughter has grown and learned more in

her time there than I could have hoped. In my opinion, this is not

only due to the instructors and the curriculum, but largely because

of the interaction she is afforded with the high school students. No

other area preschool allows its students the opportunity to interact

with teenagers on such a regular basis. The value of this experience

(for the preschoolers and the high school students) is the most

critical issue that district ignored in making their decision.

In closing, I have yet to hear a single argument which truly

supports the school district administration’s decision to close the

preschool program at Newport Harbor High School. Unfortunately, I

don’t expect that I ever will.

* JOHN BRAZELTON is a Costa Mesa resident.