VIDEO: Gov. Brown’s Budget Could Eliminate Redwood City’s Plaza Child Development Center

On the corner of Main Street and Middlefield Road, 24 children receive quality, affordable care at the Plaza Development Center while their parents and guardians are working to earn an income.

But if Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget passes in its current form—which slashed the State Department’s funding for child care development by 35 percent—, the Plaza Child Development Center will be forced to shut down, according to Director Laurie Wishard.

“For Peninsula Family Service, it would be impossible to provide any care at all at certain centers with this kind of cut,” said Executive Director Laurie Wishard. “It’s not about buying less paper to cut costs. We just wouldn’t be able to pay our staff.”

With a $25.4 billion deficit, the Governor has been forced to make difficult cuts in various sectors. Even a 10 percent cut in child care services would mean 30 children of the 300 in the 26 Peninsula Family Service centers would no longer be able to receive care. A 15 percent cut would equate to 45 children, and a large 35 percent—the current proposed amount— would mean 105 children would be forced from the Center. Wishard said multiple centers along the Peninsula could not exist with this large cut.

The Redwood City center has to run with 24 children; any fewer would result in closure, Wishard said. Once the staff is lost, the center would have to forfeit its lease.

“We would only exist with fundraising,” Wishard said. “But 35 percent is $770,000 and raising this amount would be pretty difficult.”

And of those 24 children, only five have two biological parents at home, said Site Director Christina Aguilera.

“So this is their place of consistency and stability that they don’t have at home,” Aguilera said. “We just can’t imagine what would happen to them if the Center closed.”

The staff talks about how they're handling the tough situation in the video above.

The Peninsula Family Service receives $2.2 million annually from state funding, according to Wishard. With the State Department’s funding, it runs its six centers around the Peninsula, which provide subsidized child care for low-income families. But she added that this issue affects all child service providers.

The budget will be finalized on Mar. 10, but until then, Wishard and other parents said they are trying to raise awareness. Aguilera said 23 out of 24 parents wrote letters to Gov. Brown. All the children also drew pictures of themselves doing their favorite activity to accompany their parents’ letters.

Single mother Else Mendieta-Rodriguez spoke at Assembly budget hearings in Sacramento on Feb. 2. Her daughter, Stephanye Mata-Mendieta, 4, attends Plaza Center in Redwood City.

“I was nervous speaking to all the Assemblymembers,” said Mendieta-Rodriguez, who also delivered letters from concerned parents. “But I told them they can’t close the schools or else we’ll have no one to watch our children.”

As a housecleaner for five hours a day, she would not have time to watch her daughter. Her sister, Lizbeth, works in a clothing store and would have similar difficult finding care for her son, Jeff Ryan, 4.

“We’re just praying that they don’t close the Center,” Elsa Mendieta-Rodriguez said. “It’s so difficult to imagine that such a good school could close.”

She said this center provides superior care at cheaper costs than other centers around the area. Plaza provides a variety of activities that broaden children’s perspectives, including cooking, gardening, writing and photography.

“We just have to think positively,” she said. “But we’ve started to explore other options, but I just can’t pay their prices.”

Staff and teachers said they’re just trying to stay optimistic. So far staff members haven’t begun looking for other jobs, Aguilera said.

“We’re not working with the mentality that we’re going to close,” Aguilera said. “Half the kids are going to kindergarten so we have to prepare them for that big step. Every day we have to go on.”