The Summit Faculty District’s board of training authorized a plan to create a brand new preschool classroom at Frisco Elementary Faculty whereas elevating tuition charges to assist pay for the undertaking. 

Board members authorized the plans throughout an April 11 assembly following a dialogue with district officers on the necessity for extra preschool slots. 

In keeping with preschool coordinator Kristin Sposato, the district supplies 165 full-day slots housed in numerous elementary colleges. At the moment, Frisco Elementary gives one preschool class with capability for 15 kids and already has the house so as to add a second class. 

That may improve the college’s preschool capability to 30 kids and can assist service kids within the space who could also be on a waitlist. The district has seven kids on a waitlist for preschool at Frisco Elementary and 11 on a waitlist for Higher Blue Elementary in Breckenridge. 

“We all know that we have now a waitlist on that facet of the county between Frisco and in addition the Breckenridge space that we really feel we have now the necessity for that classroom,” mentioned Chief Monetary Officer Kara Drake.

To assist pay for the brand new class, officers proposed a tuition fee improve of $75 monthly for half-day charges. These will increase translate to a full-day month-to-month fee of $950, up from $800. Tuition charges haven’t been elevated since 2000, officers mentioned. 

“We really feel like elevating our tuition can be cheap given how lengthy we’ve held our charges flat,” Drake mentioned. 

In Summit County, greater than 2 in 3 kids enrolled in little one care have their tuition sponsored. In keeping with knowledge from the social providers group Early Childhood Choices, which administers native little one care applications, 71% of preschoolers are receiving tuition credit.

That features the Summit Pre-Ok program, which gives subsidies for kids ages 3-5. Voters authorized this system in 2018 as a part of the Sturdy Future Fund poll initiative, which raised property taxes to pay for early childhood care, behavioral well being, fireplace mitigation, recycling and public infrastructure applications. 

Final fall, the state’s common preschool program additionally went into impact, offering between 15 and 30 free hours of preschool per week for 4-year-olds and 10 hours for high-need 3-year-olds. 

Taken collectively, the subsidies cowl greater than 83% of the district’s program funding for preschoolers, which is why officers “really feel like this burden to households can be, typically, lower than the total $75 a month,” Drake mentioned. 

Nonetheless, the district must present further funds from its common fund to cowl the price of including 15 extra slots to Frisco Elementary, which Drake mentioned would whole round $16,000.

Board member Vanessa Agee mentioned the extra slots can be an excellent profit to the Frisco space however famous that the northern finish of the county has important want for preschool entry. In keeping with officers, Silverthorne and Dillon Valley elementaries have a mixed waitlist of 31. 

“Is there any house to increase in that space as effectively and have one other classroom over there?” Agee requested. 

Sposato mentioned that whereas there isn’t the house to increase preschool at both of these two school rooms, households are prepared to journey to different components of the county to discover a slot, including that Frisco’s central location ought to make it simple to take action. 

She additionally pointed to the brand new Wildflower Nature Faculty in Silverthorne, which has the capability to serve round 70 kids every day starting from infants to preschoolers. The middle opened this previous fall and represents the most important enlargement of kid care within the county’s northern finish in years. 

With the board’s approval, district officers say they’ll be capable to provide the 15 new slots to households when enrollment provide letters are despatched out in Might. 

Board President Consuelo Redhorse referred to as it a “win for our youngest college students right here on the district.”