How did MCCSC come up with $6M for preschool? What was the advisory committee's role?
The Monroe County Community School Corp. reports on its website it conducted three sessions with an advisory committee that "helped shape the referendum level."
About half of the 44-member committee included administrators and other employees of MCCSC or board members, among them Superintendent Jeff Hauswald, Alexis Harmon, the district’s director of educational technology and communication, the district's communications officer Kelby Turmail, MCCSC Assistant Superintendent Erin Stalbaum, MCCSC Director of Finance & Logistics Adam Terwilliger, principals and two school board members.
MCCSC is seeking a referendum to raise $8.5 million in the first year. The district plans to use $2.5 million for free pre-kindergarten for 3-year-olds whose families meet free/reduced lunch guidelines and $3.5 million for free or reduced-cost pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds.
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Harmon and Turmail did not respond to repeated requests asking how the corporation arrived at the $6 million figure. On Monday morning, The Herald-Times called or emailed about 10 of the committee members who did not appear to be directly affiliated with MCCSC.
Most of those members could not be reached. Bloomington City Council member Susan Sandberg, one of the 44 members the district listed, said that while she was invited, she was so busy with city business that she did not participate. Others on the advisory committee who could be reached said they had no information about how the district determined the $6 million figure.
Kelly Sipes, executive director of Penny Lane Child Care, said she served on the committee to provide information about the capacity and needs of child care providers.
"We had nothing to do with ... the financials," she said.
Only after the H-T bypassed Harmon and Turmail and directly contacted Terwilliger and committee members — some of whom forwarded the inquiries to the MCCSC communications staff — did Harmon offer a statement from Terwilliger which said the district arrived at the $6 million figure based on estimated student numbers from the Brighter Futures Indiana Data Center.
"MCCSC anticipates the possibility of up to 1,200 students requiring care within our pricing ... (but) there is no specific percentage earmarked for contracting out services since the actual demand remains unknown," Terwilliger said.
He said the school gets basic tuition support of $7,157 per K-12 student, but for preschool students is using a more conservative figure of $8,000 per student because of the greater complexity of education for younger children.
"For four-year-old care, which will be introduced in the 2024-2025 school year, our budget includes provisions for families below 200% of the federal poverty level for a family of four to receive free care. For families with incomes between 200-300% of the poverty level, we anticipate subsidizing 75% of the cost, with the remainder being fee-based," Terwilliger said. "All other families would receive a 50% subsidy, with the remainder being fee-based. In the case of three-year-old care, we expect to provide the full subsidy for those who meet the Federal Reduced-Price Lunch (F/R) guidelines."
Early voting on the referendum has begun. Final voting will be on election day, Nov. 7.
Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: How did MCCSC come up with $6M figure for Pre-K expansion?
