Detour • Children
are being bused to Prisk Elementary School
while the Isabel Patterson Center is
being remodeled. The Isabel Patterson Center
is located at 5700 Atherton St. located
near the housing office and Park Side
Commons
dorms. Stacy Schwed / Summer Forty-Niner.
Prisk
Elementary takes in campus children
By
Danielle Dunbar
Summer Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
One of the three children’s sections of the Cal State Long Beach’s
child development facility, Isabel Patterson Center has been shut down due
to construction, and kindergarten to 2nd grade children are being sent to another
elementary school, for their child care.
“The children of the Isabel Patterson Center are being sent to another
school because the building which held this group of children is being torn down
for remodeling,” said Richard Haller, the executive director of Associated
Students, Inc. Minnie Gant Elementary School is right across the street from
the center where the children could go, but Haller said there was no space available
for the children at that school. Prisk Elementary was the closest school to the
center that had enough available space for all of the children.
One of the current children’s sections of the Isabel Patterson Center
is being torn down and rebuilt due to remodeling and functionality problems,
said Robert Quirk, of physical planning and facilities management.
The current dome is being removed, and a standard building is replacing it.
The current building is problematic, which is why it is being removed, Quirk
said. Not only is the current building old, but there are also plumbing and
roofing problems, Quirk said.
Due to the inconvenience of the remodeling, the children must go somewhere
else, and since Prisk Elementary is not within walking distance from the center,
the children are being transported by bus.
The
parents of this group of children are being
charged an extra $15 to have their children
sent to Prisk Elementary
instead of the Isabel Patterson Center, this extra charge is a transportation
fee, said Haller.
The remodeling of the building should be completed by the beginning of the
spring semester, and the children will be able to remain at the Isabel Patterson
Center and not Prisk Elementary, Haller said.
The Isabel Patterson Center provide child development services that enable
student-parents to attend classes at the university, said Rhonda Marikos,
the director of the center, in an online statement on the CSULB Web site. “The
Center also offers children an experience that facilitates their growth, learning
and creativity,” Marikos said.
The mission of the center is to ensure that no student-parent is denied access
to higher education due to lack of affordable childcare, an online statement
from the CSULB Web site said.
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