Fees Rising for Pleasantdale Preschool and Kindergarten Programs

Parents sending their children to preschool and extended-day kindergarten in the could be paying higher tuition in the fall - about $1 a day more.

At the Dec. 21 school board meeting, Superintendent Mark Fredisdorf presented members with proposed fee increases starting with the 2012-13 school year.

“We think this is a prudent thing to do, given the direct costs and the subsidies the district provides continue to go up,” Fredisdorf said. “And this is a modest increase given there has not been an increase for three years.”

According to the proposal, students attending the two-day Bright Beginnings Preschool program would pay $1,378 a year for tuition, which is $19.41 per day. Currently the tuition is $1,300 a year, or $18.31 per day.

“What we’re recommending is basically a dollar a day more,” Fredisdorf said.

Tuition for three-day preschool would increase from $1,950 a year ($18.93 per day) to $2,067 a year ($20.07 per day).

Parents of students in five-day preschool and extended day kindergarten would pay slightly less than $1 more per day.

The plan calls for increasing tuition from $3,250 a year ($18.57 per day) to $3,413 a year ($19.50 a day) for five-day preschool.

“We wanted to try to encourage five days,” board member Karen O’Halloran said.
The increase for two-day and three-day preschool is about 6 percent, she said, while the five-day preschool rate is increasing about 5 percent.

“We were afraid if we did something too aggressive, we would turn people away,” O’Halloran said.

If the changes are approved, the cost for extended day kindergarten will also increase - from $3,250 a year ($18.47 per day) to $3,413 a year ($19.39 per day).

Board Vice President Mark Mirabile said after considerable review of the figures and comparisons with other area preschools’ fee structures, “it was pretty much a consensus of the Finance Committee to move in this direction.”

The decision to increase tuition comes as District 107 continues to see its costs for the preschool and extended-day kindergarten increase. That is largely due to the increased enrollment of special needs students in both preschool and extended day kindergarten, as well as an increase in free and reduced tuition students, Fredisdorf said.

“Those are the two biggest factors that have upped our cost,” he said.
The district is obligated to provide individualized education program services to students with special needs.

In the last four years, the cost has more than doubled - from $31,450 in 2009 to $68,900 for the current school year - as more students enrolled. In that same time frame, the amount of free and reduced tuition subsidies the district provided for students nearly doubled as well - from $16,377 to $32,012.

The tuition the district does take in only covers a portion of expenses for preschool and extended-day kindergarten.
For the 2011-12 school year, the total direct and indirect cost for the programs is expected to be $582,828. However, the district’s revenue from tuition is $183,575, leaving $399,071 to be covered by Pleasantdale.

The proposed tuition increases will be up for vote at the board’s Jan. 18 meeting.

In other news, the board adopted the 2011 tax levy od $14,290,378, which doesn’t include bonds and interest, Business Manager Catherine Chang said.

Although that is the amount the district is requesting, “we don’t get that much,” she said.
Last year the district levied for $15 million, but only got $9.86 million, Chang said.

Under the Property Tax Extension Limitation law, a cap is placed on what a taxing district can receive in tax extensions on existing property. The cap is the lesser of the tax year’s Consumer Price Index or 5 percent. It also allows for an additional amount for new construction, Chang said. For tax year 2011 the CPI will be 1.5 percent.

“The two unknown factors are the EAV (equalized assessed value) and the new growth,” Chang said. “And that’s why we balloon the levy ... so we capture all the dollars that are due the district and we don’t lose any money.”

At this point, the tax rate for 2011 is unknown, she said. For the 2010 tax year, the rate was 1.54.

“I have no idea what next year will be,” Chang said. “But one thing we know for sure is that for the 2011 tax extensions a 1.5 percent increase can be expected on local property tax revenue.”