Tanya Fuentes, 42, considers herself the mama bear for the children who attend Glen Arbor School, a preschool in Ben Lomond.
Fuentes, the director of Glen Arbor for 13 years, concerns herself with more than logistics. She also teaches little ones to tie their shoelaces, write their names and make friends with other boys and girls, all the while giving their parents progress updates.
“This place is very special to me,” Fuentes said. “It’s a really great way to bridge the community together. I see it as co-parenting.”
But the school that has served the San Lorenzo Valley since 1972 is suffering in this economic recession. County funding, which helps the school to accept low-income students, has fallen by nearly $20,000 in the past several years. Enrollment is down by at least 12 students to just 18.
“When the state keeps cutting and cutting,” Fuentes said, “the kids are the ones who get shorted,” Fuentes said.
New this school year at Glen Arbor is an afterschool program for first- to fifth-graders. For $30 a day or $125 a week, older students can get an hour of tutoring and an hour of life-skill lessons that include cooking, cleaning and interviewing for jobs.
The hope is that the added program will supplement the preschool, which operates as a parent cooperative and asks every family with a child enrolled to work at least two hours a month, to buy something for the school or to donate money. Parents who volunteer more hours pay less tuition for their children.
Fuentes pointed to a wall that bears all the class photos of students over the years.
“You can see that enrollment has changed significantly,” she said, indicating a class of about 58 students fewer than 10 years ago compared with the class of 24 last year.
“We had 45 students in 2005,”she said. “We’ve gone consecutively down since the recession.”
Fuentes said she’s alarmed by that trend because preschool-age children need to have their learning potentials nurtured and honed.
“Preschool is an open door for emergent curriculum, and the kids have a hunger for knowledge of the world,” she said. “It’s scary that this is the lowest number of students we’ve ever had.”
Besides meeting the state’s curriculum standards, Fuentes said, Glen Arbor teaches its students basic social skills, potty training and personal enrichment.
Parent Debra Bradford said she interviewed people at several preschools before choosing Glen Arbor for her two children.
“It’s been life-changing,” Bradford said. “My daughter learned how to write her name in a week.”
Jayme Ackemann, a Ben Lomond parent, said she has a long and rich history with Glen Arbor.
“Both of my daughters attended there, and now they are in elementary school,” she said. “Having a strong preschool foundation has really helped them excel.”
Ackemann, who was recently laid off her job, said a sluggish economy is taking its toll on a lot of parents in the community.
“What’s happening is a lot of parents in the valley are having to get by on less,” she said.
Unemployed parents often cannot afford to keep their children in preschool, leading to school closures, which further limits the options for parents who need good childcare to keep their jobs, Ackemann said.
“My concern as a parent is there aren’t a ton of certified preschools with flexible schedules as it is, and now we’re losing so many of them,” she said. “I don’t know what we’ll do with our preschool-age children.”
At a glance
What: An after-school program for first to fifth-graders at Glen Arbor School
When: 3:30 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday
Where: 9393 Glen Arbor Road, in Ben Lomond
Cost: $30 a day, $125 a week
Info: Tanya Fuentes, 336-3448
