Cape school board considers preschool

The Cape Girardeau School District would have to spend nearly $550,000 to start up a preschool and child-care facility even if a local company provided the space and utilities, officials said Monday.

The board also voted to extend superintendent Dr. David Scala's contract for two years.

Staffing the new preschool would cost nearly $400,000, with another $150,000 going toward supplies and equipment.

Revenue from tuition would generate nearly $372,000 the first year. But the district still would have to subsidize the operation by nearly $178,000, special services director Deena Ring said.

In subsequent years, expenses would be less because equipment like tables and chairs would already be in place, she said. As a result, she said, the district would have to subsidize the operation by less than $77,000.

Ring said she estimated expenses slightly on the high side and revenue on the low side so as not to understate the cost to the school district.

The school board discussed the proposed preschool at a special meeting Monday night but made no decision.

Board members said they want more information before deciding whether to proceed with setting up a facility in space owned by National Asset Recovery Service Inc., which will open a call center in the former Sears building in Cape Girardeau's Town Plaza.

Board president Sharon Mueller said the board needs to act soon.

NARS executive Barb Cagle urged board members to act within the next several weeks so construction work can begin to remodel 7,600 square feet of space to meet state child-care standards.

Ring estimated after the meeting that the revenue is based on serving 200 to 300 children the first year, including some 120 preschoolers ages 3 to 5. The facility also would serve infants and toddlers and those in before-school and after-school child-care programs.

She told the school board that the revenue estimate assumes that half the 120 preschoolers would come from low-income families who wouldn't be charged a fee.

The plan envisions that families would pay tuition based on a sliding scale that takes into account their ability to pay.

The district, said Ring, isn't trying to compete with other child-care facilities in the area. "Some people can't afford high-quality preschool," she said.

The goal, she said, is to help improve the academic skills of at-risk children before they get to kindergarten.

Ring said the district also could move its special-education preschool children from classrooms at Jefferson Elementary School into the child-care facility. That would allow the district to allow those children to interact with other children, something the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education favors, she said.

Several board members said the district needs a preschool program. "The earlier we get them, the better off they are," Charles Bertrand said of the children.

But he said the board should consider running its own program rather than partnering with a private business.

Mueller views the proposed arrangement as a pilot study. The district could end up expanding it at a later date.

She said NARS won't run the child-care operation. "They will own nothing but the space we occupy," she said.

Any NARS employee will be charged for child care just like any other customer, school officials said.

The district would own all of the equipment and provide the staff. Ring estimated the district would have to hire a director and three full-time day-care staff as well as four preschool teachers, four preschool assistants and 10 part-time staff.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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