Supr. Heidi Carvin reviewed the 4K proposal---its structure and its financial impact. There are three possible models for 4K. The first occurs in school facilities. This is not under consideration. The second, option 2, occurs at the daycare center with school hired staff. The third occurs at day centers with day center staff. The final package of 4k may be a blend of Option 2 and Option 3.
In the first year, assuming that Evansville has experience similar to Edgerton, which has the model that Evansville is following, the impact to Evansville taxpayers would be either a mill rate increase of .28 per 1000 of valuation or a reduction of the School fund balance of $178,000. There would also be the portion of the expense that the state would pay for that taxpayers in Evansville would pay for which would be 2/3 of the total expense.
The model assumed 100 students enrolled, but in the examples given, there were openings for 20 at each of two or three daycare centers. Supr. Carvin indicated that many centers increase their space when they are familiar with the program, and there may be other folks that are providing day care that might want to create a business plan and become a center.
It is unclear how many unfilled slots would be available for youngsters that are not already attending day care centers. Supr. Carvin stated there would be no cost, but the question would be how much space would be available. Mr. Hatfield noted that there would be no motivation for a provider to provide a slot for a 3 hour non regular enrolled student. This area remains open for discussion it seems.
Supr. Carvin is meeting with potential contracted daycare providers today and there will be an open house at the end of the month to inform parents about the structure of the possible program.
According to a spreadsheet that was not handed out to attendees, the program as envisioned would be lucrative after the first year and reduce the mill rate from the second year on. However, the blend of option 2 and 3 had not even been decided and the discussion with the daycare centers had not been finalized so one cannot give any further details about such speculation, since that is all it is.
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Supr. Heidi Carvin went over the fact that this program does not constitute a subsidy of day care. The parents will still pay the daycare the regular amount.
"Supr. Carvin indicated that many centers increase their space when they are familiar with the program, and there may be other folks that are providing day care that might want to create a business plan and become a center."
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to imagine the day care center that would not want this opportunity. Though the Finance committee did not provide copies of the spreadsheet to those of us in attendance, I thought I heard Mss. Carvin say the day-cares would get $2,000 per 4-K student to cover the costs of using the day care facility for the three hours 4 days a week. So that means possibly $40,000 extra income for the day-cares. This on top of the full-day rates parents are already paying to keep their child in the facility before and after the 4-K program.
It would be my guess, that finding spots for stay-at-home kids would be the least of the problems with 4-K.