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Thursday, May 15, 2008

Services May Stay at San Antonito

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
      Here's a surefire way to get parents in the East Mountains upset: start monkeying with their children's before- and after-school programs.
       The Vista Grande Community Center was closed for construction of the attached Fisher and Smith Memorial Gymnasium, a 19,000-square-foot, 500-seat facility.
       During construction, the community center's before- and after-school programs have been held at San Antonito Elementary School.
       If all goes as planned, construction may be completed on May 22, according to Frank Marquez, Bernalillo County's public works director.
       However, that doesn't mean that the before- and after-school programs will be moved back to the community center, according to Ed Chismar, the county's director of parks and recreation.
       He said the county's vans can no longer be used to transport students from San Antonito to Vista Grande.
       In fact, community centers throughout the county have stopped offering the programs due to legal concerns over the vans that transport children from schools to community centers. Instead, the programs are offered at the schools, with one notable exception.
       Los Vecinos Community Center in the Tijeras area is just a short walk away from the schools, so the programs were kept there. That may not be possible for the Vista Grande programs.
       “The school and the center are just far enough apart that it is going to be difficult to find transportation,” Chismar said.
       He also noted that, should the children walk to the community center, they would have to walk across a street that accesses East Mountain High School, a road that is often used by teenage drivers, which makes for an additional safety concern.
       “We still want to provide the after-school services, but we have to do it at the site (San Antonito),” Chismar said. “If someone has an idea on how to deal with transportation, I'd certainly love to hear it.”
       Some parents, though, insist that the county hasn't communicated with them about the situation, according to Jennifer Thompson, whose son attends San Antonito.
       “We were not consulted,” Thompson said. “They're here for the community, but nobody asked us what we thought.”
       She said she thinks the kids should be moved to a different environment for after-school programs, rather than in their school cafeteria, which is currently used for the programs.
       Vista Grande has a stage, a gymnasium, air hockey, computers and other facilities, Thompson pointed out.
       “Kids can release their energy, rather than being cooped up in that cafeteria,” she said.
   

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