By Matthew Hirsch

A BERNAL HEIGHTS preschool, one of the few fully subsidized child care programs in San Francisco, is looking for a new home after city library officials said it would not be part of the remodeling plans for the neighborhood branch library. The Bernal Heights State Preschool has been located at the library since it opened 22 years ago.

The decision may threaten the future of the preschool, which is run by San Francisco City College to provide affordable education for low-income children in Bernal Heights. The program serves 25 children, ages three through five, at a time. It operates on a half-day schedule to allow parents to participate in their child's daily activities.

Bernal residents and children's advocates who have rallied behind the school say they were initially led to believe it would be invited back to the library once renovations were completed. The library is slated to close in the fall to undergo structural improvements and other changes that will improve safety and accessibility and add space for library patrons. It's scheduled to reopen in 2007.

Mauricio Vela, a Bernal resident and a volunteer with advocacy group Parent Voices, says library renovations will come at the expense of the preschool, which mostly serves Latino and Filipino families. Community leaders are looking for a place nearby to house the preschool, he told the Bay Guardian, but so far they don't have control of a site.

Most of the parents want the school to remain at the library, said Vida Sanford, a Parent Voices organizer. Even if the school secures its own space, it will have to come up with funding for expenses like rent and electricity, which the library never charged.

Vela and Sanford, along with a group called Save the Bernal Preschool: Stop the Eviction Campaign, plan to ask the San Francisco Library Commission at its Jan. 20 meeting to work out a plan that allows the school to return following the renovation. They criticized library officials for not reaching out to preschool families while planning the Bernal branch overhaul.

"[The library] saw this as an opportunity to get rid of the preschool and take that space for the library, because the preschool was going to have to move out anyway," Vela told us.

According to a design plan the city's Bureau of Architecture drew up last October, the library will use the downstairs space currently occupied by the preschool for a children's collection that's twice as large as the existing one. Upstairs the library will install a new teen collection alongside a slightly larger adult section.

The plan still needs final approval from the library commission, but it shows how library officials decided early on to part ways with the preschool. Even now, as preschool supporters are holding out for shared space at the branch, acting city librarian Paul Underwood has said that's not a viable option.

"I don't see how it could be done," Underwood told us.

Including the preschool as part of the renovation would mean having to comply with building codes for a child-care facility, and Underwood said the library doesn't have the money to do that. He also cautioned that the library can't spend funds earmarked for branch libraries on preschool improvements.

"They see it as us evicting the preschool. That's not what we're doing," Underwood said. "We're returning the building to a full public library, as it was originally intended to be."

In a few months, the library will begin renovation of the Bernal Heights branch, and there might be an easy way to adapt space that can be shared with the preschool. The trouble is, nobody knows how much it would cost to do it, because the library hasn't given the idea consideration.

Stephen Santos-Rico, chair of the City College child development department, told us now is the time for the city or the library to demonstrate its commitment to the Bernal families who benefit from the preschool.

"We have always been committed to providing high-quality preschool education for low-income families," he said. "However, it remains to be seen if a city and county agency like the public library shares that vision."

The San Francisco Library Commission meets Thurs/20, 4 p.m., San Francisco Main Library, Koret Auditorium, lower level, 100 Larkin, S.F. (415) 557-4233. The third Thursday of every month is primarily focused on the Branch Library Improvement Program.

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