Child-Care Center Opens at Complex

It was only the first day, but 18 children dug in the sand, rode tricycles and generally made themselves at home Monday as a veteran Los Angeles child-care agency opened its newest facility, in the Parthenia Court Center Apartments.

The child-care center’s hours are designed to better accommodate the schedules of working parents who live at the 25-unit complex, which opened in December to low-income renters. And fees are on a sliding scale--based on parents’ income.

“It was great for this community that the apartment building was built with a child-care center. These are exactly the types of programs that families need to get off welfare and to get ahead,” said Carole Brogdon.

Brogdon is regional director for the nonprofit Los Angeles Child Care and Development Council Inc., which operates the Parthenia Court Child Care Center.

The center is funded primarily by the State Department of Education. Its subsidized programs offer not only affordable child care but a positive, bilingual environment for children to learn in, Brogdon said.

The child-care council, which was established in East Los Angeles in 1971, also recently opened a center in Canoga Park and now operates seven facilities in the Valley, Brogdon said.

Unlike most child-care facilities, she said, the Parthenia Court center includes an infant-care center and accepts children from 6 weeks to 5 years old. The center also serves hot meals that provide up to 80% of the children’s daily nutritional needs and offers support services for parents with information on subjects from disciplining one’s children to earthquake safety.

The center, which can accommodate six infants and 12 preschoolers, currently has room for five more children.

Dora Reyes, a single mom who works part-time at a leasing company and manages the Parthenia Court Center Apartments, said the center is a welcome option for parents like her. Reyes’ three children, ages 3, 5 and 4 months, are enrolled at the center.

“My kids have been watching it get built up so they were very excited about today,” she said. “I’m excited too because it gives me somewhere to put my kids that I can trust.”