San Carlos awards $235K for child care

“It is phenomenal to see this program working as intended,” Councilmember John Dugan said.

One of the grantees is Bright Horizons. It was awarded $100,000 to renovate the facility’s playground to accommodate a young demographic. 

The child care facility, located at 2851 San Carlos Ave., is currently licensed to serve children older than 24 months old. The organization is currently awaiting an updated license that would allow the facility to accommodate children as young as 12 months old, and renovations could help accept 24 more toddlers into the program. 

A 2025 report by the San Mateo County Child Care Partnership Council found that while there are adequate facilities serving preschool age children, there is a continued need for infant care spaces in San Carlos. 

The city’s grant program is the first of its kind in the county, which means that there are some kinks to still figure out, councilmembers realized at their board meeting Jan. 12.

“If we had sat back and tried to plan for every single hypothetical scenario that might have come up, we might have never got this off the ground,” Assistant City Manager Nil Blackburn said. 

In addition to Bright Horizons, the two remaining awards were given to two separate facilities owned by the same company, Shu Academy. 

Councilmembers debated whether it is appropriate to grant a single company — in this case, Shu Academy — more than the maximum allotted grant of $100,000 total, even if the awards are bifurcated across properties. 

Shu Academy’s existing preschool at 1601 Laurel St. was awarded $35,654 for interior and exterior renovations that will result in eight new child care spaces. 

The organization was also awarded $100,000 to help recover an expected down payment on a new facility, located at 1622 San Carlos Ave. This facility, once open, would create between 48 and 55 new child care spaces in San Carlos, serving children between 18 months and 4 years old. 

With each decision made regarding the grant program, and how the funds are dispersed, a precedent is set, which the City Council weighed before ultimately awarding the grants on Monday. 

Vice Mayor Adam Rak said he was not comfortable awarding the grants without discussing the precedent that would be set by awarding one organization for two properties. Councilmember John Dugan described the grant program as “high risk” with minimal oversight on the follow-through by award recipients. 

Still, the council ultimately approved the second round of grant awards 3-1, with Rak opposed, and Mayor Pranita Venkatesh recused. 

As the city expects an abundance of commercial development on the east side of the city, tens of thousands of employees could potentially be in need of child care near work, Councilmember Sara McDowell said. 

If the city has the money — sourced primarily from the Childcare Development Impact Fees established in 2022 — then it should be reintroduced into the community, McDowell said, 

“There’s no reason for us to sit on this money,” McDowell said. “I think this industry needs a lot of support and we happen to be in a very lucky place [to help.] … The number of slots that will be created from this is really incredible.”  

The awards granted Jan. 12 add on to the $500,000 awarded in late 2024 to support the creation of 75 new child care spots.