Let’s help the Palomita kids by fixing vandalized center
There are only 237 spots for under-5 child care in 78744 ZIP code.
Good and reliable child care is worth its weight in gold — and it doesn’t come cheaply.
Entire volumes have been written about how to choose a child care facility that is safe, secure and able to prepare small children for school life.
For many low-income workers in Travis County, all of that information is worthless. They live in neighborhoods with few options, and even fewer options they can afford.
When the Palomita Early Childhood Development Center in Southeast Austin opened in April, nearly 80 kids whose parents work low-wage jobs (less than $22,000 a year for a family of four) had a safe, secure answer to this very dilemma: Free tuition, family support services, academic preparation.
Vandals last week trashed those parents’ hopes, causing at least $250,000 in damage, leaving families in need of emergency child care and with uncertainty over whether the center would reopen next week.
Licensed child care centers in this part of the city are so rare that there are only 237 full-time spots for children under 5 in the entire 78744 ZIP code. The Palomita center, run by nonprofit Child Inc., has 79 of those seats. It opened in April and already has a waiting list. At least one of the other centers in the area, which has room for 39 children, has been cited multiple times by the state for failing to do background checks on its workers.
“If we had 1,000 seats in this community, we could fill them,” said Albert Black, executive director of Child Inc., about Palomita and the need for high-quality child care and early childhood education.
If you hop across Interstate 35 to neighboring ZIP code 78745, just one of the nearly two dozen full-time child care centers can accommodate 179 kids. And Palomita isn’t just any day care — it’s one of the county’s 15 standalone Head Start programs.
Put aside the political rhetoric about Head Start and consider what the Palomita center actually does. The mission is to get low-income kids ready for school. Staff members conduct home visits to work with parents; they provide daily hot meals; they provide technology tools to help students cross the digital divide; and they work hand-inhand with the school district’s free prekindergarten programs. All infants and toddlers receive Head Start comprehensive services, such as health, dental, nutrition, mental health, social services, parent training and parent involvement — including free screenings for maternal depression.
So, when news reports showed the horrific vandalism at Palomita, my heart sank. The vandals trashed every square inch. They spray-painted the kids’ computer lab and state-of-the art Smart Boards, making them unsalvageable. The culprits went in the kitchen where meals are prepared for the children, turned on the faucets and flooded the center. They spray-painted every toy, every wall and every furniture surface. Vandals returned a day later with bolt cutters to steal the laptops that were bolted down for security. Despite early reports of $50,000 in damage, the total is now expected to be at least $250,000.
Certainly Austin residents would rally to help? By Thursday, the response had been muted, despite pleas from Council Member Delia Garza. They had received one PC and a copier, and one cash donation of $1,000 from the Austin Baptist Association. Four volunteers from Rep. Eddie Rodriguez’s office had donated two workdays each and offered to work through the weekend.
After I blogged about it on Friday morning, the pace of donations had begun to pick up, with another $1,200 by late afternoon. In a city this wealthy, helping Child Inc. should be a community endeavor.
The center is insured, but it runs almost entirely on grant funding from the city and federal government. It is clear that security systems at the Palomita center and other locations are needed, despite the fact that the nonprofit’s budgets are largely set two years in advance.
Volunteers are scheduled to work through the weekend, but it is unclear if the center will be allowed to reopen Monday.
It is exactly the kind of program that Austinites should rally around. If you are interested in donating, call 512-451-7361 or go to childinc.org.