By Nina Martinez
Pulse Staff Reporter

The Ray Ellison Family Center is set to be completed Jan. 23, 2000, and will open its doors to the children of Palo Alto College students after its certificate of occupancy is issued.

Palo Alto received $188,000 in funding from the U. S. Department of Education to provide childcare grants. The Ray Ellison Charitable Fund donated an additional $200,000 to build the family center here at Palo Alto.

“We hope these funds can help eliminate the social and academic barriers that so many students face as they try to achieve their dreams of a college education,” said Michael Gutierrez, Assistant to the President for Resource and College Development.

The center will also hopefully make Palo Alto look more attractive to students by offering needed services, thereby increasing enrollment. The Ray Ellison Family Center, named after its donor, will be located on the southeast side of the George Ozuna Jr. Learning Resource Center.

“The idea for the daycare center has been evolving for almost nine years,” said Leandro Esparza, Director of Student Activities. “One of the areas where the idea came from was actually students themselves, over the years, from doing surveys and needs assessments.”

Patricia Parma, Coordinator of the Returning Adult Center and co-author of the grant proposal, said, “Parents simply cannot attend school or focus on their coursework if their children are not cared for adequately.”

The center, which will be licensed by the National Association for the Early Education of Young Children, will provide high quality childcare on campus. It will have four classrooms, and one of these rooms will be set aside for adults to obtain parent training and for other educational seminars. While at the daycare, the children will participate in educational activities.

Employees hired will have to be licensed. There might be an opportunity for work-study at the center, but nothing is definite.

“Safety is the number one priority,” Esparza said. “All staff will have background checks, and if it does become a lab for students to work, then all students working in those areas will also have to pass some type of screening in able to work there.”

The center is designed to serve 50 young children between the ages of two and four. Students' children will be first priority. The center may even take in children with special needs, although nothing is definite and each situation will be evaluated. The students who will be able to have their children at the center will be based on a financial need assessment, according to Esparza. “Although the eligibility criteria is still being developed, financial need will be taken into consideration,” he said.

Those students with no other source of funding and whose child care expenses are high will receive grants. Students receiving grants will also receive special services to help them be successful in parenting and in their education. These services include counseling, academic advising, personal and career awareness counseling and assessments to determine their individual needs.

Students with children at the center will be able to visit their children throughout the day. Student parents will also have the opportunity to volunteer at the center.

“It would benefit a lot of students, because when your children are little, it is hard to find someone to baby-sit them and go to school and go to work and do everything else,” said Melissa Zepeda, an Interior Design major.

Students who would like more information on the Ray Ellison Family Center should contact Leandro Esparza, in the Student Center at 921-5289, or Patricia Parma in the new Palomino Center at 921-5381.