The San Marcos Parent–Child Workshop, a cooperative preschool and parent education program, has seen few major operating changes since its inception in the 1950s.
With that in mind, many people wondered whether the recent retirement of the preschool’s director coming alongside San Marcos High School’s need to reclaim the preschool’s on-campus space would make for a considerable hurdle.
Quite the opposite, according to Assistant Director Diane Gonzalez.
“We are a great program, and I am just so excited about our future,” she told Noozhawk. “People thought originally that when the (Santa Barbara Unified) School District cut us off and City College cut the funding for the director, that it was going to be the end of the school, and it’s not at all.
“It’s actually the phoenix rising out of the ashes — it’s great.”
The preschool grew out of Santa Barbara City College’s 1950s parent education programs and took up residence at San Marcos High in 1959.
It operates under a cooperative model where the parents themselves run the center.
“This year we’ve been through some big changes,” Gonzalez said. “One of them was that we were asked to relinquish the space at the high school campus because they need it for special education students; they’ve had a lot more students than they’ve had in the past, and they need the space.”
Fortunately, the preschool’s search for a new location didn’t last long — or look very far.
The program found a new home nearly across the street on the side of Grace Gathering church at 400 Puente Dr., where the Circle of Friends Children’s Center used to be.
The church’s pastor, Todd Weaver, has revitalized the institution and shifted its focus to creating a space for the community to gather, Gonzalez said, making it a perfect place to bring together preschool families.
“I think it’s kind of serendipitous,” she said. “It’s been working out really, really well.”
Suzy Granziera, who used to work alongside Gonzalez at Circle of Friends, was brought onboard as director a month ago.
Anywhere from 27 to 35 families a year attend and work the preschool, Gonzalez said, and many parents have helped haul nearly 60-years’ worth of materials and furniture over the past month to Puente Drive.
“It’s really exciting,” she said. “Every time we get over there, you can kind of just feel it in your heart, that this is what is supposed to happen and that we’re going to be very successful. It’s a great change for us.”
With limited outdoor areas for kids to play in, the preschool is preparing to build a play yard out front.
“Parents have been coming and helping, and it’s a lovely thing,” Gonzalez said. “It’s like a barn-raising.”
Parents pay for the program based on the number of days that their children, ages 2 to 5, attend day care. The preschool is then operated by parents who work there at least once a week, under the supervision of Gonzalez and instructor Lea Blackburn.
Parents also attend lectures provided by SBCC at the preschool one night a week.
“Most parents never get the chance to sit down for two to three hours and talk with other parents about what’s going on, approaches to getting information, and then being able to digest it without having children around distracting you,” Gonzalez told Noozhawk.
The program is using the operational disruption as an opportunity to expand its child care to include afternoon care open to both workshop parents as well as the greater community.
“We restructured our program because we know that it’s always been hard for working parents to actually be a part of the workshops,” she said. “You have to work one day in the preschool and you have a lot of work commitments. A lot of people need child care, and we were just a morning program.”
The registration process for the upcoming term begins Aug. 22, and informational tours of the new location are slated to begin early that month.
An ice cream social and open house, Gonzalez said, is also planned for mid-August.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.