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Published on 08/03/1998 All articles from this issue

Two children's centers to open in Los Altos

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By Linda Taaffe / Town Crier Staff Writer

Los Altos Parent Preschool

Two local children's centers will be relocating to new sites in Los Altos this fall. The Children's Creative Learning Center is moving from its Cupertino location to Foothill Plaza, and Los Altos Parent Preschool will be moving from the Los Altos United Methodist Church to the Los Altos High School campus.

New programs at both facilities forced the two organizations to search for other locations - a daunting task in Los Altos, where commercial real estate for nonprofits and child-care programs is scarce, according to officials from the centers.

Fran Durekas, director of the Children's Creative Learning Center, said she feels lucky to have "beaten the odds. Three months ago, it seemed pretty much impossible. We were really scrambling."

Durekas began the search for a new location last year after learning that the Cupertino site she had been leasing since 1993 would be opening as a private school this fall.

Durekas said she unexpectedly secured a 20-year lease at 2310 Homestead Road last May after a national day care chain aborted its plans to lease the site.

Still under construction last week, Durekas said the child-care center will open Aug. 31 in a space that formerly housed two retail stores.

The center will feature seven classrooms, key-pad entry doors, 45-square-feet of classroom space per student and pastel blue rooms with lots of natural light. There will also be an outdoor play area with a garden, Durekas said. The site will extend its program to include children ages 18 months to five years.

Durekas said there is a two-year waiting list for the Learning Center. She said about 100 families have children enrolled in the center. She expects about 12 spots to open, she said.

A native of Los Altos, Durekas opened her first Creative Learning Center at Stanford in 1992 after graduating from Cal Poly with a degree in child development. She has since opened five more centers throughout the area.

The relocation experience of Los Altos Parent Preschool mirrored that of the Learning Center. Preschool members began searching for a new location last year after the Methodist church announced plans to open a Christian day care at the site.

Jeannie Richter, coordinator of parent education-child care, said school members were determined to stay in Los Altos, where the parent-cooperative center was established 45 years ago and has operated ever since.

She said finding space in Los Altos "was not easy. We are a nonprofit and had no funds to speak of."

The Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District stepped in and offered the preschool a site at Los Altos High next to the visitor's bleachers at the football field. Richter said numerous community members also offered their services, including landscaping and construction.

The preschool will be housed in three portable classrooms that will be joined to make one large unit, Richter said. Richter said there are currently about 45 students, ages 3-4, enrolled in the school.

Sponsored by the Mountain View-Los Altos Adult Education Program, the preschool is a parent-participation program in which parents assist in the classroom three time a month and attend parent discussion meetings.

Richter said the on-campus location will allow the high school to enhance its child development program by enabling students to observe the classrooms and to volunteer there.