Saving Child Development Centers
OAKLAND, Calif. (KCBS) _ Concerned Oakland school officials and parents will be making their way up to Sacramento this week as they try to convince lawmakers to help them keep preschools open for the coming year.
The Oakland school board kept 32 child development centers open through the end of August with stimulus money. Seven were scheduled to be closed.
"For the center here at Manzanita, we're looking at $650,000 per year to deal with the preschool and school-age kids," said school board member Noel Gallo. "Which amounts to in this center about a hundred kids."
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Gallo said they need $4 million to keep all the centers open come September, money that's now tied up in the budget impasse.
"A lot of these centers will be closed. And it's going to go beyond the seven," Gallo said. "Because we don't have any money. We're relying basically on Sacramento to provide that kind of support."
Gallo said Democrats need three Republican votes to release the money. Parents and officials are expected to meet with lawmakers, including Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado on Tuesday.
