Plaza Child Center to Close This Month

From quality education to exploratory activities like gardening and photography, Plaza Child Development Center has been providing childcare for 13 years in Redwood City. But on July 29, it will be closing its doors, unable to withstand devastating state budget cuts.

Childcare programs across the state have suffered severe blows to their operating budgets, with umbrella organization Peninsula Family Service anticipating a 15 percent cut from their annual $2.3 million budget, according to Executive Director Laurie Wishard. She said recuperating this $400,000 cut through local fundraising and other valiant, well-intentioned efforts would be nearly impossible.

“When we told them, parents were crying and promised to do bake sales and carwashes, but it just wouldn’t be enough,” Wishard said. 

Peninsula Family Services operates nine childcare locations in San Mateo County, but ultimately the board decided the closure of this facility would have the smallest impact on the least amount of children, Wishard said. Smaller cuts like single classroom eliminations or field trip reductions would have amounted.

“This is just a phenomenal center, and we were hoping for a miracle in Sacramento that just didn’t happen,” Wishard said.

Parents of the 23 out of 24 children wrote letters to Gov. Brown, accompanied by their children’s hand-drawings of their favorite activity at Plaza. Some parents even traveled all the way to Sacramento to protest cuts to childcare services back in February.

“These parents are so dedicated,” Wishard said. “They tried everything to avoid the closure.”

Single mother Elsa Mendieta-Rodriguez, who spoke at Assembly budget hearings in Sacramento told Patch in March that she was concerned about the higher prices of other childcare centers.

“We’ve started to explore other options, but I just can’t pay their prices.

Though Plaza wasn’t spared, half the children will be advancing to kindergarten and would naturally no longer need the services. Nine of the remaining half have been placed in other programs and Peninsula Family Service is working with parents of the other three children to find a solution.

Teachers were unable to comment because of the tough transitioning period, according to Peninsula Family Service spokesperson Marisa Binder.

But to mitigate the blow to the teachers, the Peninsula Family Service board tried to optimize the timing of the closure by selecting July 29, a natural transition time with higher staff turn-over rates. Plaza teachers will have first right of refusal, or automatic hiring at other locations should positions open up, according to Binder.

“We know they’re fantastic educators,” Binder said. “And all their paperwork and fingerprints have been taken, so they would be ready to go.”