District officials approve cuts to OCC children’s center, despite pitch to grow revenue
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District officials Monday approved a downsizing of classes and staff at a longstanding Orange Coast College children’s center — citing insufficient revenue and changing student needs — and rejected a proposal drafted by parents and teachers to save it.
Now, left with less than four months to find alternative child care, parents of more than half of the students enrolled at the Harry and Grace Steele Children’s Center are hoping to find a means of maintaining the center they love so dearly, but time is running out.
Madjid Niroumand, OCC’s vice president of student services, explained the need to reduce programs from five classes to just two Monday during a meeting of Coast Community College District trustees, who oversee the programs and budgets of the Costa Mesa campus.
The move would displace nearly 60 infants, toddlers and young preschoolers and necessitate the layoff of at least eight instructors. Coast officials had to approve the proposed staff reductions, among others, before a March 15 deadline.
Niroumand said OCC has been paying more than $500,000 annually to subsidize a program created in 1969 as a childcare solution for students and staff at the Costa Mesa campus, but is today mainly populated by the children of parents from the broader community.
He projected a shortfall of up to $700,000 in the fiscal year ahead and attributed the center’s deficit, in part, to unionized employees earning an average of $115,000 in salary and benefits.
“This is something that is really creating an unsustainable structure for the children’s center at Orange Coast College to meet its revenues,” he said.
Effective July 1, the program would be pared down to two preschool classrooms with four teachers and up to 48 students as well as a director and a support position. Enrollment priority would be given first to the children of OCC students, then to campus employees.
Among 105 kids currently enrolled at the center, 20 are children of the college’s students, while 17 belong to faculty and staff members. Niroumand said the shift would return the focus back to the center’s intended clientele.
“The purpose of this plan is to ensure we realign our service offerings to be prudent with our financial projections but also be true to our core mission, which is supporting our students,” he said.
However, the shift would also eliminate the primary source of revenue that comes into the Harry and Grace Steele Children’s Center — the tuition paid by the parents who would be turned away.
Parents and staff members packed Monday’s board meeting. Some testified to the vital role the center plays, not just for students with children but for those enrolled in OCC’s Child Development and Education Department, which incorporates the facility into its curriculum.
Others, organized under a “Steele our School Back” campaign presented a counter-proposal they say would restore the center to solvency over the course of a year or more.
Huntington Beach parents Nadia and Will Prioleau drafted the plan alongside a core group of staff members using financial figures, salaries and teacher-to-student ratios.
The two-pronged approach involves shifting two employees in the infant program, slated for layoffs, into one currently unused preschool classroom, allowing for the addition of 20 more kids and the associated tuition. Those who are now enrolled in the infant program would age into the toddler class, allowing the infant class to sunset without displacement.
It also calls for increasing tuition rates for the children of community parents. A market analysis of similar programs with a 10-mile radius found OCC’s infant program tuition was 51% below market average, while preschool enrollment cost 34% less than similar programs, the group reported.
A survey of about 70 parents determined 90% would be willing to pay up to $200 more per month per child. Another 10% of respondents indicated they’d need more information, but none were opposed to higher tuition.
“We know the program is in demand — there are 133 families on the wait list,” Nadia Prioleau told the board. “So, we can raise tuition. That’s OK with everyone; we’ve proven that with data.”
OCC’s bucolic Harry and Grace Steele Children’s Center has become the scene of a battle between officials proposing to cut programs and staffing and parents and teachers trying to save the beloved institution.
The counter proposal prepared by the Prioleaus and some of the school’s staff was sent to Coast CCD trustees on Saturday. But board members Monday did not discuss it, saying they were obligated to consider the needs of community college students first and foremost.
Board Chair Elizabeth Dorn Parker said the Associated Students of OCC, which traditionally funded the children’s center budget shortfall, is strapped trying to provide food, textbooks and mental health counseling to students. Parents offering to pay more in a moment, she added, does not ensure stability.
“It’s not the way I thought we would go, but it’s the way we must go. We’re rightsizing across every campus,” Dorn Parker said.
She spoke of how she had been turned away several years ago when she sought spaces for her own children in the school, “so I understand the absolute magical part that this center has played.... But I also understand we cannot deficit fund this. [And] we cannot have a one-year plan.”
Will Prioleau said Tuesday he was disappointed the board didn’t seriously consider the counter proposal, voting instead to continue deficit spending by subsidizing the care of OCC students’ children while cutting off the center’s main source of revenue.
“We have a simple solution. We put it in front of them ahead of time and none of them at the meeting reacted to it,” he said, adding that the group will continue to seek help and partnerships to reverse course before July. “It’s the wrong thing to do financially, and it’s obviously disrupting people’s lives, so there’s no real upside.”
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