By MELISSA BEAL Palisadian-Post Contributor On April 6, following a weeklong break for spring vacation, Margarita Pagliai, co-founder of Seven Arrows Little Dolphins Preschool in Temescal Gateway Park, received an e-mail from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy stating that the school’s lease had been revoked and that they must vacate the property by the end of June. Pagliai told the Palisadian-Post this week that she was shocked and confused by the Conservancy’s abrupt turnaround from the agreement signed a year ago permitting the school to stay through June 2008. But, by the end of April, the Conservancy re-instated its resolution that provided Little Dolphins with a one-year nonrenewable lease, allowing the preschool to stay until the end of the 2008 academic year. ‘We were shocked,’ Pagliai said, ‘because we had a lease and they revoked that lease, which is what they just renewed.’ When Little Dolphins Preschool was founded in 1994, it entered a two-lease agreement with the Conservancy, followed by back-to-back five-year leases. It occupies approximately 7,000 square feet in the 141-acre park and its most recent lease, which began on September 1, 2002, was set to expire on June 30, 2007. Because of a consistent pattern of renewed lease agreements between the Conservancy and Seven Arrows (the parent of Little Dolphins), school administrators expected their lease to be renewed. Over the past 12-year lease period, Seven Arrows has paid $609,913 to the Conservancy and has also spent approximately $600,000 on improvements to the school bungalows and adjacent Stewart Hall, according to school officials. In May 2006, Seven Arrows received a letter from the Conservancy stating it had begun a process of phasing out private leaseholds in Temescal Gateway Park and the preschool’s lease would not be renewed. Aware of the logistical difficulties in relocating a school, the Conservancy offered Seven Arrows tenancy for one additional year, allowing it to remain in the park until June 2008. ‘Our rent helped enable them (the Conservancy) to run their programs and run the park,’ said Seven Arrows co-founder Jody Roberts. The Conservancy’s decision to terminate all private leases in the park is part of its plan to increase public access to the area. ‘Dozens of people have walked by Little Dolphins and wanted to use the facility,’ said Joe Edmiston, executive director of the SMMC. ‘But of course they can’t, because it is gated off and private, to be used only by Little Dolphins.’ However, Seven Arrows–which has hosted and funded several public programs, including an event featuring renowned primatologist Jane Goodall that drew hundreds of LAUSD children to the park–maintains that their space is of no use to the Conservancy. ‘These bungalows are not in conflict with the space they need for their programs,’ Pagliai said. ‘They always told us that our location was not what they needed for their programs.’ The Conservancy’s Mountains Education Program provides outdoor education for inner-city children, which includes overnight stays in the cabins and dormitories in the canyon. Seven Arrows administrators have now begun the process of finding a new location for their preschool. Still, they estimate that the relocation could take up to three years, considering that they must find a space, then complete the permitting and licensing process. Also, it will be difficult to extend contracts for teachers and accept new and returning students to their program if they are unsure where or if the school will be in operation by the start of school in 2008. ‘Families need to know that there is a location, where the school is going to be, and that it is going to exist,’ co-founder Mari-Jo Deutschman said. ‘We are in the process of looking for space, but it’s not an easy task. We feel that one year won’t work. Our school will not be able to exist logistically.’ In the meantime, Seven Arrows hopes to continue working with the Conservancy, coexisting with any of its programs in the park, as they have done in the past. ‘We are willing and wanting to be partners with them,’ Roberts said. ‘We no longer see ourselves having a long-term future here, but if we have a reasonable amount of time to find a new location, we would like to use that time in partnership with the Conservancy.’
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