by Garth Meyer
Parents and teachers spoke to the Redondo Unified School board Monday, Feb. 12, about the discontinuing of the district’s after-school, Child Development Center program for fourth and fifth grade students.
The comments followed a letter sent to parents announcing the change, and an online meeting Feb. 11 to address the fallout.
“We were never consulted,” said parent Lucy Williams. “… We’ve all been told we’d have a spot through fifth grade.”
Katherine Granoff said, “It’s not fair… It was communicated in the worst possible way.”
Miriam Butler expressed “utmost disappointment… They’re the kids that had their kinder class and first grade on Zoom… The letter that was sent out was very disrespectful.”
Child Development Center (CDC), held in classrooms in the mornings and afternoons, mimics a school environment.
Redondo schools Superintendent Nicole Wesley responded at the Feb. 12 board meeting, noting the online meeting the night before.
“This issue is 100% about the inability to staff openings,” she said. “The district and board does not have a desire to not provide CDC for fourth and fifth grade. It’s that we have no other choice.”
Wesley said there have been five job openings all year that the district has not been able to hire for, and must use substitutes as fill-ins.
“There’s more demand that we can provide for,” she said. “We own that we could have communicated better.”
Current CDC fourth and fifth grade students may participate in the program through the summer.
“No (teachers) are being laid off. The issue is we don’t have enough staff,” Wesley said.
A woman who identified herself as Faye, from Beach Cities Health District, was another parent who spoke to the school board.
“I appreciate the apology last night from the administration for the way this was handled,” she said.
Mark Lewis, an instructional assistant at CDC, gave input too.
“A lot of us are very concerned,” he said, speaking about the cut of upwards of 40 fourth and fifth-grade students. “That there would be no positions for us.”
American Federation of Teachers’ representative Sharon Medina, a veteran Redondo Unified CDC teacher, met with Supt. Wesley earlier about the matter.
“She was listening, we were heard and we were validated,” Medina reported at the school board meeting.
She thanked Boardmember Byung Cho for contacting her.
“Please, reconsider,” she said.
This fall, to alleviate the issue, the district will offer help from Right at School, a national after-school program, alongside the CDC’s T-K through third grade, and through fifth grade in mornings only. Right at School will offer TK-fifth grade and middle school in the afternoons.
“We decided to make changes to focus on the youngest students, and have enough staff to do so,” said Annette Alpern, Redondo Unified deputy superintendent, administrative services. “Unfortunately, in trying to meet one need, we created an unhappiness on the other end.”
Right at School has been working in RBUSD for two years, paid for by a state grant. They will expand offerings for 2024-25.
“They have opened up more spaces to paying families as the CDC was not able to meet demand,” Alpern said. “They do not have the same hiring issues as RBUSD. My guess is that much of that has to do with the more stringent credentialing requirements we have for our teachers.”
Notice
Supt. Wesley and Alpern went into more detail in the online session Feb. 11, to which 65 questions were submitted in advance.
“We recognize the disappointment, disillusion and dismay caused by the letter. I agree, we could’ve done a better job communicating the need for this change and preceding details,” Wesley said.
The CDC is a program run by the district, but with 100% parent funding. It is led by (part-time, split shift) teachers with a child development teacher certificate, or a multiple subject teaching credential.
Alpern said the issue is not related to pay.
Pre-pandemic, Wesley reported that it was a “thriving program” at Redondo, then after temporary layoffs for many CDC teachers, all were invited back but not all came back.
In 2021, the district hired a third party to help find applicants. It led to no new hires.
The CDC has long had waiting lists, giving priority enrollment for kindergarten.
Overall, Redondo CDC had 62 teachers serving 1,800 students in 2019-20. In 2023-24, it is 44, for 1,297 students.
“Like a tightrope, it goes so long and it’s getting thinner and thinner,” Alpern said.
The student numbers continue to recover, post-pandemic, while the teachers’ numbers have not. Some CDC teachers left the program to become T-K teachers in RBUSD.
“This is not an issue unique to our district,” Wesley said.
Looking ahead, RBUSD will continue to expand its Transitional Kindergarten (T-K) next year, an offering required by state law, which equals an increase in CDC enrollment in the priority youngest grade.
“In essence, the state of California has added another grade level,” Alpern said.
In a time of declining enrollment for many school districts, RBUSD prioritizes early grades in the hopes that the children stay in the district. As a goodwill gesture to parents, the district will offer free CDC for fifth grade next year in the mornings.
Registration starts in March.
“This is a systemic issue that is occurring across our entire state,” Wesley said.
More online “Virtual Open House” sessions were held nightly last week – Tuesday was about CDC, Wednesday about Right at School and Thursday for the City of Redondo Beach after school (recreation) program.
“The plan is rolling,” Alpern said. “And we continue to attempt to hire.” ER
