Photograph by Kathy De La Torre

Anne Crane, co-director of Shannon Nursery School, says growth of the Presbyterian Church where the school is housed, may prevent the parent cooperative preschool from renewing its lease.

Families face trouble finding preschools

School closings, town denials and teacher shortage lead to long waiting lists

By Nathan R. Huff

While Los Gatos parents are often stereotyped as worrying about whether a preschool is adequately preparing their child for acceptance to Harvard, many parents face a more pressing concern--finding a preschool at all.

Despite a needs assessment study from West Valley College showing a slow decrease in the number of preschool-age children in Los Gatos, openings are few and far between. Strict, cost-inducing local and state regulations combined with a basic lack of available facilities has left Los Gatos preschools bursting at the seams. Add a major teacher shortage caused by the valley's high cost of living and booming job market, and the problem only worsens.

None of the preschools contacted for this story had current openings, and waiting lists for Fall of 2000 range from 10 to 50 families.

The closing of Casa Maria Montessori Preschool, and more recently Hillbrook Preschool, combined with the town's rejection of new preschool applications and proposals for expansion of existing sites, have only aggravated the situation.

"We could start another school based on the numbers," Donna Murden, administrative assistant for Kiddie Kampus Daycare Center said. Kiddie Kampus has wait lists for their infant, toddler, and 3-year-old programs, with mothers putting their names on the list before children are even born, Murden said. And the wait list is only growing.

Hurting for Help

"Finding quality staff is one of our biggest problems," Murden said, adding that teacher applicants for Calvary Church-based Kiddie Kampus must meet "spiritual guidelines" in addition to normal qualifications.

Charmer Preschool, a non-religious school serving 110 mostly local families, has actually considered cutting back the number of children to keep up their high teacher-student ratio. It already has 10 families on a wait list for next fall.

"It's because of the wages and the way the profession is viewed," Charmer teacher Ellen Daniels said. "That's why, for the most part, centers are closing. You can't find quality people." Even teachers with bachelor's degrees can make more money in other sectors of the booming economy, Daniels said.

Cindy Acker, director of Mariposa Montessori in Willow Glen, said their preschool has 39 Los Gatos children enrolled. The Willow Glen facility opened following the closing of the highly regarded Casa Maria Montessori Preschool, but serves only a fraction of the families Casa Maria did.

Acker said that because Montessori preschools require teachers to have training beyond that required to receive state certification, staffing problems are that much more acute. "We have set up a training program at Cal State Hayward just so we could have more Montessori teachers," Acker said. "We're constantly looking for teachers."

Smaller preschools, like Peppertree Preschool, don't have with the same level of turnover; however, hiring still poses a challenge. "It's not easy," co-administrator and director Dana Osborne said. "You can find qualified people, but not quality." Osborne said that despite the fact that Peppertree pays more than many schools, the teachers' incomes still aren't "tremendous," especially given housing costs in the West Valley.

Three preschools that manage to escape staffing problems are the Parent Nursery preschools funded by the Los Gatos-Saratoga Department of Community Education and Recreation. Parents are required to assist the credentialed teachers, keeping cost and staff turnover low for the 50-year-old program.

Heidi Bowman, a teacher at Los Gatos Parent Nursery, has taught there for 20 years. She said that even with the parent participation requirement, the school still has a waiting list. Current enrollees and alumni are given priority enrollment, leaving little room for new students.

"It's getting harder and harder for people to find care," Bowman said.

Nowhere to Go

Even if staffing weren't a problem, for most local preschools, expansion just isn't in the cards. Extremely detailed state regulations limit which facilities can be used, as well as presenting a financial obstacle to those hoping to expand. Add the general thumbs down attitude neighbors of residential preschools have towards expansion, and the chances for more sites opening are slim.

Acker and Mariposa Montessori have been attempting for a year to get town approval to open a center at Faith Lutheran Church near Ferris and Spencer avenues. Neighborhood residents have opposed the plan from the beginning, saying the added traffic would make an already dangerous area worse.

At the present time, the town is conducting a traffic study of the affected streets, after having continued the preschool's appeal numerous times. Acker said the Montessori has already agreed to enforce a mandatory carpool program, as well as stagger hours so drop-off and pick-ups don't occur during peak traffic times. Still, neighbors continue to show up at council meetings to express their dislike of the plan. Even if the council does approve the school when it comes back on the agenda in March, Mariposa Montessori may not be able to organize and make the neccesary facility improvements in time to open in September.

"Part of the difficulty in the state of California is it's so difficult to find a facility that meets local, state and federal regulations," Acker said, adding that after two extensive searches, the school has kept returning to Faith Lutheran.

Even though Mariposa Montessori has yet to get approval, Acker said there were already 30 people on the waiting list. "That's how desperate parents are," she said. "Even when we were in [Casa Maria] I had parents on the waiting list offering me cars and money."

Director of Los Gatos Academy preschool Lori Leake just purged that school's waiting list with the recent expansion into two more classrooms. Los Gatos Academy leases a former elementary school from Union School District, and when another private school at the same site moved out, the preschool jumped at the opportunity for more space.

"Prior to the expansion we had a waiting list," she said. The two new classrooms created 16 new spots, most of which were quickly taken. "Parents are frustrated," Leake continued. "It may fill up quicker than we think."

Peppertree has considered expanding, but an already rocky relationship with some neighbors makes it unlikely that that would ever happen. "The community, I'm sure, would like to have a larger school," Osborne said. "But any neighborhood preschool that tries to expand is going to have a lot of trouble doing so without the support of neighbors."

For Shannon Nursery School, expansion isn't as much of an issue as just holding onto the existing site. The Presbyterian church that houses the preschool on Shannon Road is growing rapidly, and the 37- year-old parent co-op preschool may not be able to renew its lease.

Co-directors Anne Crane and Carol Mandere said they hoped to know the fate of the site by March. As far as finding another facility, Mandere was skeptical.

"We have put some feelers out there," she said. "But of course there's very little in Los Gatos."

Town Hall Reaction

In recent years, the issue of neighborhood support has been the deciding issue in council members' minds when it comes time to vote on preschool approvals. The council has a well-deserved reputation for being extremely sensitive to neighborhood objections to any development applications, including schools.

However, the problems parents have finding quality care for their preschool children has converted at least one councilman into believing preschools should be considered a higher priority. Jan Hutchins has been the sole council member who has supported Montessori's repeated attempts to open a school at Faith Lutheran.

"I have friends with children in that age group and I have watched their struggle," Hutchins said. "I also know how important the first several years of a child's [life] are to determining their whole future."

Hutchins said he acknowledges the difficulty preschools face in finding teachers in an area where most of them can't afford to live. He cited the Silicon Valley Manufacturers Group's regional plan that advocates housing subsidies to assist area teachers as one way to attract them to the area.

First, however, Hutchins said the town needs to get out of the way of schools which already have the staff, funding, and site. "Our council, for one reason or another, doesn't get it that [Faith Lutheran Montessori] doesn't have to open until September," Hutchins said, "and we can and should solve the traffic problem between now and then."

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