At a special meeting Thursday, four City Council members voted approval of measures aimed at phasing the Bilingual Daycare Center out from city control.
One resolution was for a "transition period memorandum of agreement" with HOPES Community Action Partnership Inc. and the other was to submit a layoff plan to the New Jersey Civil Service Commission.
Both had been tabled at the June 16 council meeting after center Director Eva Rosas-Amirault and many others challenged the change.
Cory Storch, Rebecca Williams, Diane Toliver and Council President Bridget Rivers voted "yes" to both. Gloria Taylor, Vera Greaves and Tracey Brown were absent.
Mayor Adrian O. Mapp spoke Thursday about reasons for the transition, including imminent staff retirements, the current prevalence of bilingual education in Plainfield and the prohibitive cost of program.
The center began operating in 1978. The 1980 Census counted 3,291 Latinos out of 45,555 residents. The number swelled to 6,996 by 1990, 12,033 by 2000 and 20,105 in 2010, or 40.5 percent of the population.
Mapp said 70 percent of the school population is now Latino. The center's 69 students "will not lose anything," he said. He called HOPES Vice President and CFO Simona Ovanezian to the table to explain additional services the agency offers, such as a nutritionist, nurse and mental health and disabilities specialist. Ovanezian said the agency "serves the whole family."
Before the vote, some speakers pleaded to keep the center as it is. Rosas-Amirault said the program was nationally recognized and called it the "backbone of the community."
"We need time," she said. "Give us a chance."
Norman Ortega, an independent candidate for City Council, said "generations of kids studied there" and called it "part of our culture."
"What you're doing is taking a piece of all of us and throwing it to the wayside," he said.
Elsie Cousins, who with Rosas-Amirault has been at the center since 1978, said she was "being told to retire," but needed to be there to get things done.
"We are not fighting the transition," she said. "That is not the issue - the issue is the time frame."
Resident Alan Goldstein spoke in support of the transition, saying the city was spending almost a quarter-million dollars on a program with 69 students. (The city pays staff salaries and benefits.) He said the city should concentrate on core priorities.
The discussion on phasing social service programs out of the city budget dates back many years and comes up regularly in annual budget talks. Dudley House, a program for men in recovery from substance abuse, is now operated by an outside agency.
--Bernice
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I applaud the City Council, at least those who showed up to cast their votes, for making this difficult, yet pragmatic, decision. Although the winds of populist and sometimes inflammatory rhetoric in opposition to the move blew in their faces, the winds of change made this the right choice at the right time. We are between school years, there are key retirements on the horizon, decades-long demographic shifts have altered the landscape of daycare and preschool services within the city, costs were well-above alternatives, and given all these reasons, should the city even be in the school business to begin with?
ReplyDeleteBi-Lingual Daycare served its purpose well. It began at a time when its unique brand of service was not readily available and the city government had extremely few Latino employees. Although Latino representation in 'official' Plainfield still has a way to go to correspond with population growth, by 2015 between 85-90% of preschool children from Spanish-speaking households were getting bi-lingual education from other service providers, mostly all programs, including the city's, being funded through the same combination of nominal fees, public and private grants, and state education dollars.
Had the City even closed shop, lock, stock and barrel, children and their families would not have suffered, and would have been absorbed into other programs. As it stands, by entering into an agreement with HOPES CAP, jobs were protected, and the institution remains functional as an identifiable unit.
Taxpayers will save a little more, and some of these savings will be spent at local businesses owned by Latinos. The municipal government, by trimming its sails slightly, can better concentrate on other areas in which it can make a difference improving the quality of life for the Hispanic community and everyone else. We can boost our efforts at providing and coordinating social services to those with limited incomes, such as through Plainfield Action Services, the city's community action agency. (I am the PAS Vice-Chairman.) We can support enhanced literacy programs aimed at improving English proficiency that are low-cost and volunteer-based. We can make certain city employees are representative of our diversity. We can sponsor programs and events that boost cultural identity. And most of all, we must build and maintain a strong focus on job growth and business development because economic opportunity is central to our well-being.
After 37-years Bi-Lingual Daycare and its 69 children had become an icon, much more so than it was a central component to the lives of Plainfield's 20,000 Latino residents. However the strongest symbols of a new era will be the progress we make providing services where none exist and strengthening the foundations of community through dialogue, creativity, and hard work.
Thank you for taking this financial burden off the backs of tax payers.
ReplyDeleteI was glad to see that the City Council could make hard choices for the tax payers and for the day care center. I was laid off when my school was sold to a non-profit. These employees should still have a job, and sixty-nine students would not be enough to keep most schools open. I applaud those who did attend the Council meeting and took a hard, non-partisan stance for the City of Plainfield.
ReplyDeleteThe quote below seems clueless. Bi-Lingual Day Care, and removing it from the taxpayers payroll, while ensuring the children maintain their education, has been discussed for years. If we have people teaching our children who are that clueless, it's even more of a reason to remove our children from this establishment.
ReplyDelete"Before the vote, some speakers pleaded to keep the center as it is. Rosas-Amirault said the program was nationally recognized and called it the "backbone of the community."
"We need time," she said. "Give us a chance.""