Education Budget Leaves No Room for Daycare, Preschool

First Selectman Steve Vavrek was watching a live telecast of the Board of Education meeting while working in his Monroe Town Hall office Monday night, when some comments fired him up. He grabbed his coat, headed for his Crown Victoria and drove to Masuk High School to respond.

"I almost spit out my sunflower seeds when I heard I wouldn't split the cost for Chalk Hill," Vavrek told the board minutes later.

Some board members had said the first selectman was opposed to using municipal funds to keep the first floor of Chalk Hill School open next year, so the school district's daycare program could be saved.

Supt. of Schools Dr. Colleen Palmer praised the Little Panther Preschool at Masuk and Jockey Hollow Child Care, the daycare program at the middle school, but has told the Board of Education there will be no room for either next fall.

The "hibernation" of Chalk Hill means the sixth grade will move into Jockey Hollow, displacing the daycare program. And a new STEM Academy at Masuk will take up space used by the preschool.

Minutes before the first selectman's drive down Monroe Turnpike, board member Thomas Taylor suggested the school district set aside $100,000 to renovate the first floor of Chalk Hill Middle School next fall and "challenge" Vavrek to put in $400,000 from the town side of the budget, so the daycare and preschool programs could be saved.

In addition to those programs, Taylor said the Parks & Recreation Department would be able to stay there.

Board of Education Secretary Mark Hughes told Taylor he agreed with him in theory, before adding, "We have yet to see the first selectman come in front of us and say that's what he will do."

"The first selectman clearly indicated he is not willing to spend $200,000 to share Chalk Hill," said Donna Lane, a board member. "If not, I doubt [he would agree to] $400,000. That was the indication very clearly."

Vavrek entered the Masuk Media Center and hurried to the front of the room, a Dec. 18 e-mail from him to Palmer and other town officials in hand. In the e-mail, the first selectman proposed going 50-50 to open the first floor of Chalk Hill next year.

"I said I wanted Parks & Rec and daycare there," he said, adding in an "eloquent response" Palmer explained why it could not be done.

"Dr. Palmer is the expert on education, and when she says it can't be done, I assumed it couldn't be done," Vavrek said. "I was told by the superintendent there are mitigating factors, so I said, 'If it can't be done, it can't be done.'"

On Tuesday, Vavrek told Patch he and Monroe Finance Dir. Carl Tomchik also had met with Palmer and Gabriella DiBlasi, finance director for the school district, to discuss the issue in person.

Vavrek said the fact that Parks & Recreation could not come up with the rent its former director had projected, the lack of space and that it was not financially feasible at the time had also been brought up.

During the Board of Education meeting, Taylor had proposed adding $260,000 to the superintendent's budget proposal, part of which she could use toward opening Chalk Hill's first floor. But the motion failed 7-2 with only Taylor and Lee Crouch in favor.

Several potential solutions for keeping the district's daycare and preschool programs — which benefit teachers and town police officers and are funded by parents' tuition — intact were explored, but by the end of the meeting it appeared both will close down, at least for next year.

Elementary schools, portable classrooms ...

Kelly MacKenzie, who runs the Little Panther Preschool, spoke up for her program during the public comment portion of Monday night's meeting. She brought a packet with 17 letters from parents whose children were enrolled in the program.

A passage from Angie Collazo-Castillo, a reading consultant for Trumbull Public Schools, said: "According to the National Institute for Early Educational Research, 'A well-designed preschool program can produce long term improvements in school success, including higher achievement scores, lower rates of grade repitition, and higher educational attainment.' It is evident that the Little Panther's Preschool is a prime example of such a program."

MacKenzie asked Board of Education members, by a show of hands, how many saw the preschool program in a site visit. No one raised their hand. However, several board members made strong efforts to save it.

Mark Antinozzi asked the superintendent to look into the cost of buying two portable classrooms to increase space in the district to accommodate both daycare and preschool.

DiBlasi said she found it would have a $112,000 impact on the budget.

"I originally saw this as an idea to continue the daycare center. But now, seeing the cost, I don't think it's feasible," Antinozzi said. "I think it's a wonderful program. I want it to be reinstated when we do have room."

Palmer had previously asked Board of Education members to give her more time to see if room could be found in one of the town's three elementary schools to accommodate the preschool.

Lane asked her how that went and Palmer said principals told her they needed all of their classroom space.

... Leasing and being creative

At its last meeting, the school board asked the superintendent to come up with cost estimates for leasing a facility for daycare and to gauge how much more parents are willing to pay to support it.

Dr. Alan Vaglivelo, a board member, asked Palmer if she was able to do that.

Palmer said she and DiBlasi did. They found the tuition the district now charges is comparable to private daycare, though leasing and renovating new space for Monroe Public Schools' program would significantly add to that cost.

The state also allows the district to be exempt from some of its regulations by having the daycare in a school. If Monroe would lose that by leasing private space, it could also add to tuition.

"Because of the recess, we were unable to get exact costs," Palmer said of the holiday break. "[But] to retrofit and bring it up to code, we would be hard-pressed to meet the costs of other providers."

Principals at Jockey Hollow and Masuk surveyed parents on what rate they would not be willing to pay, but Palmer said the holiday vacation factored into not getting a significant response.

"We need a firmer commitment from parents," Palmer said of leasing private space.

James Sawyer and his wife, who is a teacher, have two children and a third on the way. The couple's oldest daughter benefited from the daycare program at Jockey Hollow Middle School and then the preschool program at Masuk High School, and their younger girl is in the preschool.

Sawyer does not see why the district cannot carve out space for classrooms out of existing space for the daycare and preschool programs.

"There's actual space in Masuk," he said during the public comment portion of the school board meeting, held in the high school media center. "We're looking at it here and there," he added, gesturing to another part of the library.

Sawyer recalled a summer job he had held at Shelton High School as a college student. He said temporary classrooms were formed all the time.

"Two walls, a door and a light switch," Sawyer said. "That's all you needed. You should be as creative and innovative with available space as possible, keeping the rent paid by the daycare coming into the system."

When asked about that later in the meeting, Palmer said it was possible, but then board members would have to decide what they were willing to give up.