WOODSTOCK – District 200 might retain its preschool program even without state grant money.
Tonight, the school board will consider a plan that would institute a tuition-based preschool program.
“This is not ideal,” said Vicki Larson, principal of Verda Dierzen Early Learning Center. “But this is kind of a fix.”
District 200’s preschool program largely has been funded through state grants. The state’s fiscal woes have left the status of those grants uncertain. As of January, the district had received $36,000 of an expected $1.9 million in state grant money.
Of that grant money, $1 million was for the district’s preschool program.
District officials planned to use reserve funds to make up any shortfall for this year but did not want to face the same situation next year. School officials came up with the tuition-based plan to preserve the preschool program.
“This proposal was a way to offer something,” said Barb Banker, District 200 director of community services.
The tuition rate scale has not been released by the district. The school board is expected to discuss the change and vote on tuition rates for preschool at its meeting today.
The change will have consequences for the district. The preschool program is for at-risk children who are eligible under the state grant guidelines. Specifically, the students are low-income and have academic status and family issues.
The students often come from the homes of single parents or young parents.
Larson said that with tuition, the district could lose many of its at-risk children. On the flip side, by accepting tuition, the program would be open to more families.
The preschool serves about 360 students; officials believe that with tuition being charged, that would fall to about 100 students.
The district also would expect to lay off some of its preschool staff.
“We definitely will be losing some fabulous staff members,” Larson said. “And it’s definitely a hard market out there. But, they’ve been really positive about everything.”
If grant money materializes, the families of at-risk students who chose to pay tuition would have that money refunded to them.
Larson said that ultimately a tuition-based program was better than no program at all. She said allowing the program to lapse and then restarting when grant money returned would be more difficult.
If you go:
The District 200 school board meeting is at 7 p.m. today, Feb. 9, at the Clay Professional Development Center, 112 Grove St., Woodstock.
By BRIAN SLUPSKI, [email protected]
Read the original article from the Northwest Herald.