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The boardroom looked more like Romper Room. A squealing mass of babies and toddlers were among those who crowded the Fremont Union High School District's board meeting on March 1. They--and their parents--were there to show support for the Tot Center at Cupertino High School.
The Tot Center keeps pregnant teenagers enrolled in school, helps them take care of their children after they're born and provides childcare for district staff members. The center has 15 pregnant and parenting teens enrolled and eight of their children in its daycare center, as well as 12 children of district employees.
While many who attended the meeting were under the impression that the center was in danger of closing, the discussion showed that board members are interested in keeping the center afloat.
"The facility is so much nicer now than when it first opened, said board member Barbara Nuñes. "But we have to view it like a business and find something to underwrite its costs."
The problem is a $100,000 grant that the state's Office of Family Planning will not be renewing this year. The grant had provided much of the backbone for the center's approximately $200,000 budget for the last three years. The anticipated budget for the 200506 fiscal year is $235,200, due to an increase in staff salary and benefit costs, which will leave a $135,200 shortfall.
The rest of the center's income comes from the California Department of Education, the California Wellness Foundation and fees that district employees pay for childcare services.
Trudy Gross, director of educational services with the district, presented a number of options to balance the center's budget without increasing the district's subsidy. Those included raising employee fees and outsourcing either a portion of daycare services or the whole program altogether. Gross warned that those options might make the personal attention that the center prides itself on impossible, thereby making employees less likely to use the center's services and lowering revenue.
One teenage mother said she graduated from Cupertino High School two years ago, thanks to the program. A male student said he had worked in the center as a teacher's assistant and that it was an invaluable learning experience.
Other students affected by the Tot Center are those enrolled in the Learning Center at Cupertino High, which helps special education students. Those students cook breakfast and lunch every day for the children in the daycare program as vocational training. Terese Barbeau, teaches those students in the Learning Center, spoke before the board.
"I don't want to have to come up with another vocational training curriculum," she said. The visibly pregnant Barbeau also said that as an employee, she uses the daycare facilities, which are convenient to her placement at Cupertino High. "I have one son in the Tot Center, and another one will be coming real soon," she said, patting her belly.
District staff will continue looking for options to keep the Tot Center fiscally independent, including possible grants from FIRST 5 Santa Clara County or the Fremont Union High School Foundation.
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