![]() Early education is a priority," said board president Jon Kean at the board's July 16 meeting. This summer, in two separate meetings, the school board voted to lay off 59 teaching assistants, two community liaisons, an office specialist and about 34 teachers in the department. County Department of Public Health guidelines that currently limit groups of children to 12, about half the number of kids that would normally be in an early education classroom. If the district were to reopen in person programs, it would have to abide by L.A. The department depleted its $1.2 million reserve to continue paying staff after in-person programs closed in March. There are almost 200 students enrolled in the district's preschool, infant and toddler and child care programs so far this year, and Samarge-Powell says the majority of these families qualify for subsidized services through the state. ![]() "Typically one of our programs could support the other one if they weren't doing well, or vice versa, and it's just this has literally swept across all of our programs," she said in an interview. Family fees fill out the rest of the budget, Samarge-Powell explained at a June 18 school board meeting. Last year, the budget for the Santa Monica-Malibu district's Child Development Services Department's budget was just under $10 million, with about 40% of the funding coming from the state for providing services to low-income families and a district investment of $1 million. Unlike K-12 education, the state and federal government only fund early education and child care programs for the lowest income families and even then, it's not nearly enough money for every child who needs services to get them. "I'm also concerned when and if he does go back to school, like, he already shows a little bit more separation anxiety," Gutierrez said. She's also noticed behavioral changes in her 19-month-old now that he's not around other kids. It's a cost she knows some other families, like the teen parents at the high school where she teaches, who used the district's services can't afford. They're paying about $3,000 a month for 30 hours of care per week, compared with $2,800 for full-time care for both sons through district programs. The family hired a nanny part-time to help out with child care. "I'm not going to put an infant in front of a screen, there's no way," Gutierrez said. ![]() This fall, her older son Rex, is in transitional kindergarten remotely, but she didn't enroll her toddler Rein in the district's online early learning program. In the spring, she and her husband, a software developer, juggled their full-time jobs with child care. I love cuddling- but it's just exhausting sometimes," she said. "They need you all day, and even when they don't, you know, they just hang on you- which you love. "The beginning of any school year is always transition and this one is just off the charts," Gutierrez said from the floor of her living room Monday while her sons played with colorful cylindrical blocks. "There is a weight, like no other I've had in my 24 years of, of this profession, on my shoulders, and it pales in comparison to what I know our staff are dealing with" said Early Learning Director Susan Samarge-Powell. The Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District combines state funding for preschool and child care - mostly for low-income families - with revenue from charging tuition on a sliding scale to maintain its infant and toddler, preschool and before and after-school child care programs. The result was a sharp drop in revenue - and the district is now closing the gap with layoffs of dozens of educators. Gutierrez's sons are at home, and like many parents, she wasn't thrilled with the idea of distance learning for her toddler and didn't enroll him in the program. Her sons, 4-year-old Rex and 19-month-old Rein, were two of about 1,000 students enrolled in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District's infant, toddler, preschool and child care programs last year.
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