Displaced Foster City day care finds home

The day care, which has operated at the Charter Square shopping center in Foster City near the intersection of Shell and Beach Park boulevards for more than 40 years, is being forced off the site by the district in preparation of new school construction.

Day care administrator Surinder Singh said while she would prefer to remain in Foster City, the district’s offer to make space available on the San Mateo campus seems a suitable compromise.

“It’s not easy. The emotions are running very high. We were the first school in Foster City, and under these circumstances we are leaving,” said Singh.

According to terms of an exclusive use agreement coming before the board for approval, Singh said she will rent four modular classrooms and pay for restroom and fencing installations to adequately prepare the San Mateo site.

For her part, school board President Audrey Ng said she was pleased with an opportunity to strike a deal with the day care.

“I’m very glad that an agreement has been reached. It’s an immense relief for the parents who are concerned about where their kids will go to school,” she said.

Should trustees bless the agreement, a tumultuous history of negotiations between the district and day care officials could end.

Dozens of parents, students, staffers and day care supporters flooded a district board meeting last month pleading with school officials to preserve space in Foster City for the facility, or push back the construction timeline.

School officials said their hands were essentially tied though, claiming the campus development schedule must be preserved to build Foster City’s fourth elementary school, which is badly needed to accommodate overcrowding.

District officials had also claimed they granted plenty of time for the day care to find a new location, which Singh disputed, alleging administrators had made previous promises that space would be kept in the new campus for her business. As a sign of goodwill, district administrators had initially offered accommodations at the Parkside campus, which Singh previously felt were inadequate.

The property owner and developer of the planned school campus issued shopping center businesses notices to vacate the premises by the end of January, which Singh said brought into question her program’s immediate future.

Such uncertainty led to nearly 80 percent of her clientele leaving in search of another facility guaranteed to offer continuing care, she said. While the day care was ultimately allowed to stay at the shopping center through the end of February, Singh said she now must scramble to recover her lost patrons.

“I’m requesting them to come back,” said Singh, noting the day care will retain all its staff at the San Mateo location, as well as begin offering extended hours of operation and a fuller slate of education programs.

Assuming the school board approves the proposed relocation, Singh said she expects the day care will shutter temporarily at the beginning of March and reopen in San Mateo a couple weeks later.

Looking ahead, she is hopeful the Parkside Elementary School campus day care launches without issue and that she can later find another site in Foster City to establish a second program.

Noting the long tenure in Foster City, Singh said she is looking to residents and city officials for help to find property suitable for preserving the business she considers a piece of the community’s fabric.

“We still don’t want to say we are permanently gone from Foster City,” she said.

Ng said with a preschool already established at Parkside Elementary School, day care officials may find some synergy at the campus in terms of offering early education and wish to stay there permanently.

But in the short term, Ng expressed satisfaction that the concerns of the day care community could be resolved.

“I’m glad this is an agreement that both parties are happy with,” she said.

The San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School District Board of Trustees meets Thursday, Feb. 22, in the district office, 1170 Chess Drive, Foster City.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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