Dear Mr. Rojas:

       Here is a letter that made its way to me today. It is from another "overly critical" parent that ended up pulling her child from the summer program but did return this fall. This letter seemed to go no where and fell on deaf ears. I want to make sure this woman is heard.

       Ms. Hampton was able to articulate much better than I the things that happened the morning of August 8. I was there that morning of the field trip and concur with Starli's observations regarding all that happened. (Please read letter below).

       This is only the tip of the iceberg. I feel as if the City is playing hide-the-ball with the parents. Concerns are swept under the rug and completely forgotten about. Nothing is addressed properly. No one has been forthright and candid with the parents regarding the mess at Belle Haven. Many of the parents seen these problems coming but no one listened. Many,many parents pulled there kids out and this is not the way it should be. Belle Haven wants quality care. We demand quality care. Our center and sense of community should be held together by this glue. A community center is a place where people come together to form bonds with other families so that all of our lives can be enriched. This is a quality of life issue. I hope that someone in the city takes command over this crisis, meets with the parents, LISTENS, and honestly works toward flushing out the problems and finding remedies.

For the sake of our kids can we have a town hall meeting and house cleaning of the department? The program will sink with the continued employment of the indifferent and inexperienced city staff, the lack of curriculum, the void of training, and the lack of familiarity of state licensing regulations by the people at the top, etc. Many of us are treated with disregard and disdain by the Department heads as well as apathy and detachment from our children and our program. After all, it is our program, our community and our children. We were here far before most of the city workers and our families will live here many, many years after city personnel have passed through and are gone.

I will conceed some of the workers are wonderful but they are overwhelmed when the others do not do their jobs. They feel demorlized and muffled. If they speak up for change they fear losing their jobs. Several staff members, as admitted by current supervisors, might not have a calling in child care and are not suited for the occupation. The parents feel administrative/supervisory staff are not fully qualified for the positions they now hold.

I make a plea to you to please right this ship and do not let your staff down play and hide from you the depth of what is happening. We love our children, we love our community and there is no crime in me wanting a better future for Belle Haven - No matter how much some may want to shoot the messenger. Thank you.

• Marcia Dore-Perez (415) 297-6009

Starli Hampton
1020 Bradley Way
East Palo Alto, CA 94303
(650)323-0768

Anna,

I am sending this note to you so that you may forward, if needed, it to the necessary administrators in regards to the Menlo Center experience I had this morning.

I arrived at the center at 8:15 this morning to drop Tiere off for his field trip. I noticed that as we approached the center gate, Tiere hesitated and became very tense. I could hear lots of 'kid noise', but I was totally unprepared for what I saw as we entered the center. There was a large number of children all over the room engaged in various activities, some of them positive, others, negative . One girl was playing with stuffed animals using an electrical cord from either a television or a computer for the animals to tight rope over, which was plugged into an outlet. I did not have time to walk over and take a good look before my attention was taken by two boys who were engaged in a pinching contest.

Tiere put his lunch in an unmarked cubby, and kind of walked around not really talking to anyone, just looking confused. I signed him in, and waited for instructions regarding the trip. I saw a table with green center shirts on it, which other children had on. One of the children told me that the names were on the shirts, so I went over to find Tiere's shirt and put it on him. I did not find one with his name on it so I chose one with no name and put it on him.

During this entire fifteen minute process, we were never approached by any adult, nor did I see any interaction between any of the young adults wearing 'staff' shirts and any of the children. In fact, I only witnessed two people who seemed to be working, the young lady who began getting the children into their shirts after I got Tiere's shirt, and a young man who was going back and forth to the other building. There was one young man sitting on a sofa, looking very bored, and five or six young women who were in the kitchen talking and, I was later told, preparing breakfast.

When it was time for the children to get breakfast, a different young man came out of the office and told the kids to, "line up and get ready for breakfast." The kids formed a very unstructured line and continued their various activities. This process was very hectic, and in the next few minutes the young man instructed all the kids to sit in their groups on the floor. Two older girls, who had received their breakfast (a half apple and a slice of bacon) proceeded to eat their food while sitting on the floor. I found this outrageous, as there were at least five tables in the room and no one had bothered to put the chairs down or instruct the children to sit at the table. In fact after I made several faces, the young man from the sofa and another girl, started putting chairs down, but stopped after putting approximately eight chairs at one table.

One of the older girls attempted to get a chair for a younger girl, but the chair was snatched from her hand by another girl her age, in a very menacing manner. I watched to see what the staff reaction would be, but there was none. I proceeded to take the chair from the more aggressive girl and gave it to the younger girl. Never once did any member of the center staff make any attempt to intervene or ask me what had happened.

As I continued to watch, several staff members came out of the office and formed several groups of two staff members. One group, which included the young man from the sofa and another African American girl, positioned themselves at the far end of the room, but did not interact with the students. Another team of two Latino young women, stood near the hall to the restrooms, but also did not interact with the students. One young man began to give out instructions for the field trip while the young ladies in the kitchen began to call up the groups to get their breakfast, which now consisted of a waffle with syrup, 1 slice of bacon, and one half of an apple. I watched in disbelief as the children ate their breakfast without utensils of any sort! Many of the children ate on the floor. I can not explain how disturbing the entire scene was to me. I'm not sure which was worse, the children eating on the floor in a filthy classroom, or tearing their waffles into pieces with their fingers because no one cared enough to give them forks!

I went over and asked the young man who had been traveling between buildings who the director was. He pointed her out to me and I asked her if she was in charge of the program. She told me she had been there two days, and had taken over while Natasha was on maternity leave. She seemed as inexperienced as the other staff members. In fact, the only two people in the entire place who seemed to have any experience with this type of work were the young woman who was passing out t-shirts, and the young man who was traveling between buildings. After speaking with the program director, it was clear that this was not a problem that had developed in two days, but is an active problem that has been engrained in the foundation of the entire East Menlo Park program.

I was taken aback by this experience on many different levels. First and foremost, there is no way that this type of program would be allowed to exist if it were servicing children in a higher income bracket or a different demographic. The program at the civic center (Burgess) is very well run, well staffed, and professional. This program is understaffed, unorganized, and potentially dangerous to the physical and emotional well-being of the children who's parents cannot afford a private program. The old adage, "you get what you pay for" is certainly evident in every aspect of this program.

On a professional level, I understand that a program is only as good as it is set-up to be by the organization which governs it. The pedagogy of the program administrators is a clear indicator of the quality of the program. It is obvious that the developers of this program do not feel that the children in the Belle Haven area deserve a quality program, or they would have one in place. This is racist, and egregious. I imagine that a surprise visit from First Five, The Child Care Coordinating Council, The National After School Association, or The National Association for the Education of Young Children would make quite a difference in the reorganization of this program. Especially if either program presented their findings to the city council, with the possibility of a loss of funding/licensing for the City of Menlo Park programs.

As a parent and aunt of one of the students enrolled in the program, I am appalled at the lack of organization, the unkempt condition of the classroom and playground, the potential for injury due to safety hazards (inside &out), and obvious lack of training for staff. I understand that these student staffers may be inexperienced, but they should have received training specific to working with school-aged children. Had they been hired at the civic center (Burgess), they would certainly have been held to a higher standard of care. In addition, the condition of the classroom would have been modified and updated. The playground would not have trash all over it, and would be in much better condition. It obvious that there have not been many updates to the center or yard since my daughter attended the program from 1994-1996.

I am sure the center staff would greatly benefit from training in the following areas;

• Curriculum development-to learn to plan activities &programs to engage the children and lessen the opportunities for difficult interactions,
• Inclusion-in which every student can engage in every activity if he/she chooses,
• Behavior modification(positive reinforcement)-so that inappropriate interactions can be swiftly redirected to more productive activities,
• Cultural awareness/inclusion-will help end the segregation in the classroom students. The young people on staff do not seem to be aware that if the staff separates themselves by ethnicity, the students in their care will follow suit. In a quality program children should be encouraged and guided to engage in aesthetic experiences that cross boundaries, both culturally and academically.
• Care and Maintenance of the program facility-to teach the staff how to prepare the class each evening for the next mornings program. This would also teach them to spot potential problems before a crisis happens. This is not meant for them to become janitors or repair men, which is the responsibility of city maintenance staff.

In light of this experience, I am encouraging you to remove Tiere from this program immediately. I truly believe the tension he is feeling is a result of his having to adjust to his move from Bing School to this after school program.

Sincerely,

Starli Hampton Received on Thu Nov 15 00:57:20 2007