EXCERPT FROM: Cape Gazette
By Leah Hoenen
The Cape Henlopen School District is getting out of the day-care business, closing the day-care center at the Lewes School on Savannah Road. Facing a projected $775,000 deficit for next year, the district’s regular day-care program will close at the end of August. The move threatens the jobs of 13 paraprofessionals.
Program staff members and parents say the program provides needed child-care service and helps identify students with learning disabilities.
Two early-childhood programs that serve children with disabilities will remain open, providing services for children with a variety of disabilities who otherwise would not be served. The day care will close Monday, Aug. 23.
The school board voted to end the day-care program at its Thursday, July 8 meeting. Superintendent David Robinson said the board had to act because his decision to discontinue the program affected the tax rate, which the board had to set that night. With the day-care closure, he recommended dropping the tuition tax rate by five cents.
Program deficit, allocation of funds
Robinson said the day care had a net loss of $122,000 in 2009, its first year, and a net loss of $619,000 in its second year. The projected budget for the 2011 fiscal year was $950,000, while the income was estimated at $175,000.
“To the best of my knowledge, establishing the Little Vikings day-care program was an administrative decision, so to discontinue it would also be an administrative decision,” Robinson said.
Robinson said he was concerned over the program’s deficit and that it was funded through tuition taxes, which all property owners in the district pay to fund tuition costs of Cape students who must attend special schools in and outside of the district. Students who did not need special services were mingled with students with learning disabilities, said Robinson, which is why the program was funded through the district’s early childhood program.
District business director Oliver Gumbs said the program began as part of the consortium preschool program, but its costs were tracked separately. A big part of the program’s costs come from the large number of staff, he said. Some students in the day care qualify for “purchase-of-care,” a state program that pays part or all of child-care tuition based on the family’s income, he said. Gumbs said the reimbursement doesn’t cover total tuition in Cape’s program. “It lessens the blow, but it still doesn’t cover the costs,” he said.
“I determined it wasn’t an appropriate expenditure of district money,” Robinson said. He said the number of students in day care who get state tuition reimbursement is likely higher than at private child-care facilities. But, he said, other child-care centers also accept state coupons.
Who is affected
Newly sworn-in board member Roni Posner asked which children would be affected and how their parents would make up for the loss of service. Robinson said he wants to close traditional day care, which provided day care to interested parents while also integrating children without disabilities into the program for children with learning disabilities. He said Cape’s rate, about $130 a week, is similar to rates of other day cares in the area.
“The traditional competitive market can fill this void,” he said.
Jeff Conrad, district special education supervisor, said 55 students are enrolled in the child-care program, and 65 are enrolled in district early childhood programs, which are not being closed. When board member Andy Lewis asked how the district would provide “typical peers” – meaning children without disabilities – for disabled students, Robinson suggested the district return to offering child care for its employees and possibly Beebe Medical Center employees. The district offered that service in the early 2000s.
Lewis abstained from the vote. After the meeting, he said, “I don’t make snap decisions on things like this. I feel I need to look at the information in more detail and consider it from all angles.” Lewis said while he wasn’t ready to make a decision, he didn’t ask to table the measure because it needed to be done that evening, and four members approved the closure, passing the measure. Some parents have complained that closing the Little Vikings child-care program means fewer children with learning disabilities will be identified and given the help they need. Robinson responded that experienced child-care workers in private centers will be able to tell if children have learning disabilities and help them get the help they need, including referring them to Cape’s other programs.