To parents of young children (or future parents):
Do you know that there is a crisis in child care in Malibu?
Malibu has five preschools and only a handful of home day care centers which operate at capacity. Due to the popularity of Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School, Children’s Creative Workshop Preschool will be forced to reduce its capacity by approximately one-third in the fall. Of the 48 children on a waiting list, very few will be able to find a place at this popular preschool. As the population of children in Malibu grows, Children’s Creative Workshop, which has served 60-70 families for 17 years, could lose its space entirely.
Along with this preschool space reduction, is the threat of closure for Malibu’s day care, including Kim Ledoux’s wonder Years and Teri Hutchinson’s day care. Due to a ludicrous parking regulation, these child care centers could be forced to close their doors. This would affect another 40-plus children, making the total of 90-plus children who could be without a quality, licensed preschool/day care.
Can families afford to stay in Malibu if child care is this limited? Where will these children go? Where will they learn and play and grow? How will these parents go to work?
I realize that bringing the Malibu Bay Company into this picture will cause some people to shake their heads and possibly stop reading. But we cannot deny that Malibu is in desperate need of child care facilities, ball fields and community center space for all the activities that go along with an active and educated community like ours. The Bay Company has offered, as a gift, the property on Point Dume which will answer the needs of our youngsters. The Point Dume Community Center, which will lose all its space this fall, is keeping its board of directors intact, in hopes of finding a facility to once again offer the much needed services to its neighbors.
If you have young children, or plan to, please help to make the city officials aware of the intensity of this problem, that it is very real, and that it is immediate. Please consider all the aspects of this offer from the Bay Company and ask your city government to do the same.
The Planning Commission will hear from the child care providers who are in jeopardy due to the parking regulations on Monday, May 3, at Hughes at 6:30. Attending this meeting will show these officials that we do care about child care opportunities.
I hope that we can solve this problem before too many families find themselves without choices for their children, or altogether stuck without child care. Please support the children of Malibu and encourage the city to do the same.
Shari Latta,
Children’s Creative Workshop