February 3, 2010 - 440 words
D-200 to charge for preschool
ELIZABETH HARMON - The Woodstock Independent
Beginning in the fall, Woodstock School District 200 will transition to a tuition-based preschool program, due to the delay of state grant money.
"We realize this will not address the needs of our low-income families, but it might save some of our program," said D-200 Superintendent Ellyn Wrzeski.
The district's state-funded pre-kindergarten/3- to 5-year-old program and the Birth to Three program will be suspended. The Birth to Three program is a two-day parent/child educational playgroup with a parent education component included.
The district's Early Childhood Special Education pre-kindergarten program is not impacted, as it is federally funded.
The tuition-based preschool, which will be similar to the current pre-kindergarten offering, will be self-supporting.
"It must run like a business. We have to break even," Wrzeski said.
Community Unit School District 300, Carpentersville, operates a tuition-based preschool program, as do districts in Naperville and Mt. Prospect.
"We've researched it, and lots of public school districts host tuition-based preschools," said Vicki Larson, principal of Verda Dierzen Early Learning Center.
The program will likely offer morning and afternoon sessions and will be open to children from within and outside the district. Larson expects the students who come from outside the district will be children of D-200 employees.
Larson is currently developing a tuition plan that will make the new program competitive with other area preschools. She said that the new program will meet a growing need in the community without hurting other local programs. Parents were notified by letter Jan. 20, and Larson said response from families to a proposed tuition-based program generally has been positive.
"With the possibility of no grants and no program at all, we felt like we needed to offer something," Larson said.
The two programs being suspended have an annual budget of $973,553 and are funded entirely through two state grants: the Early Childhood 0-3 Block Grant and the Early Childhood 3-5 Block Grant. As of Jan. 26, D-200 has received just $67,274. A balance in the education fund is funding the deficit but will not be available next year.
Currently, students pay no tuition, only a $66 registration fee. The program is open to any family in the district but pre-screening and staff evaluations determine which students are selected. Screening criteria include family income, family history, vision and hearing test results, development of speech, language, motor skills and age-appropriate skills such as color recognition and counting.
Enrollment in the pre-kindergarten program is 360 students. The Birth to Three program serves 40 families. Combined, the programs employ 10 certified teachers and nine classroom aides.
Wrzeski said that if grant money payments resume, the district could reinstate the tuition-free pre-kindergarten and Birth to Three programs in the future.
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