Spring Valley Gains Pre-School, Southwestern College Gets Parking Lot

During my stroll through the new last night, I met Susan Holley, a program director for Child Development Associates, Inc. The non-profit agency found out late last year that their pre-school program was losing their space at Southwestern College to make way for a parking lot. She's been scrambling ever since.

I found Ms. Holley as she was sharing where she finally landed. Her pre-school program is to be offered at the former Spring Valley Elementary School site. While the pre-school will be new to Spring Valley, CDA offers similar programs (Ages 3-5, 1 teacher to 8 children) in National City and in San Diego's Otay area.

More importantly, it seems that the CDA program is well suited to the Spring Valley neighborhood. CDA offers a reduced tuition schedule for low-income families, that is funded through San Diego County. Ms. Holley shared that CDA's query of the county database used by families to register for child care assistance, showed strong demand for subsidized pre-school in the area.

In addition to the pre-school program, CDA also administers a child care food program -- one of  the largest in the state. As part of this program, the Spring Valley site will offer a nutritious breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack to the wee ones in its charge. The federally funded USDA program reimburses child care providers for meals that meet federal nutrition guidelines.

Ms. Holley also shared that some of these program funds are on the state budget chopping block. Which is not good news for low margin programs like CDA, as they try to maintain program quality with even less support. I wasn't sure if the program cuts meant fewer families would be eligible for support, or if program providers (like Medi-Cal doctors) will simply need to make due with lower payments from the county. I suspect it could be both.

But the new CDA pre-school program is open to any family, even the rich ones - and the regular tuition schedule is reasonable at about $35 day (including those nutritious meals). You get a break if your child is there for 5 days of care each week.

Ms. Holley is waiting for her new floors to be installed, but she is ready to meet with any families interested in sending their little tykes into her capable hands.

The decision to close Spring Valley Elementary School was historic. The school was one of the first built in the area and had recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, perhaps contributing to its high cost of repair.  The site itself is not far from Bancroft Ranch House, one of the first settlements in the area and a spot used by the Kumeyaay natives for thousands of years.

The decision to close Spring Valley Elementary was taken to save dollars for a school district that would later find itself in need to save more dollars long after the last classroom was locked. Thankfully, the site is humming again with activity. Ms. Holley noted that she got the last classrooms available. I say welcome to the neighborhood - thanks in advance for taking care of our youngest residents.

I wonder what else is going on at 3845 Spring Dr.