The City Schools of Decatur has only raised the tuition at its 0-3 year-old program at the College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center by $20/month since it was acquired by CSD back in 2011, according to a note to the School Board from College Heights Principal Suzanne Kennedy.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, the Decatur School Board approved phasing in a much larger tuition increase at the ECLC over the next three school years.

Principal Kennedy stated in her note to the Board that the ECLC’s tuition rates are “significantly lower than current market value” according to a review of the tuition levels at 10 comparable childhood learning centers around Atlanta.  Principal Kennedy also noted that CSD currently supplements the ECLC to the tune of $1,350,000 a year.

And of course one can’t consider this without first reflecting on CSD’s ever-top-of-mind K-12 student enrollment bulge.

Principal Kennedy stated “College Heights funding may become a larger challenge than it is today given the significant increases in student enrollment across the district and CSD’s primary mandate to serve the K-12 program. After reviewing this information, the council agreed that it was time to adjust tuition rates to be more aligned to other centers and to become more financially sustainable.”

After a “significant amount of deliberation and discussion” including three ECLC Advisory Council Meetings, discussions with Council Members, and “informal Hallway/cocktail/coffee conversations”, CSD staff recommended a gradual increase in ECLC monthly tuition over the next three school years.

As shown in the chart above from the presentation attached to the recommendation, in 2015-2016, tuition will rise $100 from the current level of $1000/month for infants and $900/month for 2-3 year olds.  In both 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, the tuition rate will rise again for both age groups by $150/month each school year.  CSD will also offer a “family discount” of 10% for oldest child if 2 or more enrolled in 0-3.

After all is said and done, monthly tuition is rising from $1,000/month to $1,400 for infants and from $900/month to $1,300/month for 2-3 year-olds by the 2017-2018 school year.

These tuition increases will bring in an additional $543,000 per year (as shown in the chart below), helping to close the $1,350,000 gap that currently exists in the program’s costs and its tuition revenue.

Charts and tables courtesy of ECLC presentation to School Board

Yesterday, City Schools of Decatur held its pre-K lottery for 190 slots at College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center.

As recapped in an email from CSD’s Community Liason Courtney Burnett, “Bright From the Start allocates 9 Pre-K classrooms to City Schools of Decatur that is included in our grant agreement each year.  Class sizes are determined by Bright From the Start.  Currently, we have 4 inclusion classrooms with 20 students enrolled and 5 Pre-K classrooms with 22 students enrolled which totals 190 slots for College Heights ECLC.”

This year, a total of 263 children were involved in the lottery, so 73 children ended up being added to the waiting list.  This is up from 47 children added to the wait list across all of last year.

According to Ms. Burnett, 17 children from last year’s list remain on the waitlist for this year.  With yesterday’s addition of 73 children to the existing waitlist, Ms. Burnett confirmed that “This will be the first year that families who participated in the lottery “probably” will not be offered a slot prior to the start of school.”

11Alive does a nice job highlighting the preparation taking place around Decatur for the President’s Thursday visit. (h/t:  Downtown Decatur)

Also, Patch has a new article this morning on the excitement building around Decatur surrounding the President’s short visit to the city.

Wow. I’m not sure local news gets much bigger than this.

KC alerts us on Twitter and sends along a note sent out by College Heights Principal Suzanne Kennedy to parents that President Barack Obama will visit College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center in Decatur this coming Thursday. City Schools of Decatur’s Community Liaison Courtney Burnett has confirmed the visit and says CSD is “honored”. This will follow a stop in Asheville, NC on Wednesday, according to the AJC and a stop in Chicago on Friday. Ms. Kennedy’s note said in part..

I have exciting news to share with you about an event at College Heights: President Barack Obama will be on our campus Thursday, February 14, 2013! President Obama’s visit is an honor for College Heights and the City Schools of Decatur.

The school system is currently on winter break, but according to Principal Kennedy’s note, the school’s pre-K and Head Start programs will reconvene for the day on Thursday to accommodate the President’s visit.

Patch reports that the Decatur School Board debated, but ultimately hired Chairman Marc Wisniewski’s son, Joseph “Andy” Wisniewski, for a part-time job at College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center last night.

The background from the Board’s agenda, Action Item “a”, states…

O.C.G.A 20-2-58.1 states that no local board of education shall employ or promote any person who is a member of the immediate family of any board member unless a public, recorded vote is taken on such employment or promotion as a separate matter from any other personnel matter. Any board member whose immediate family member is being considered for employment shall not vote on such employment.

On July 18, 2011 two part-time After School Program Provider positions were posted at the direction of Ms. Suzanne Kennedy, Principal of College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center (ECLC). Once the posting closed, she and her team evaluated the candidates and a separate team interviewed those candidates. The team decided that they wanted to go forward with Andy Wisniewski and therefore the Human Resources department is requesting the public vote on his employment in compliance with O.C. G.A. 20-2-58.1.

The Board voted 3 to 1 to approve, according to the Patch article, with outgoing member John Ahmann casting the only “nay” vote.  Lots more info on the dabate in the article linked to above.

Allison Taylor writes…

A very important issue is coming up regarding funding for our pre-k program, and the board will be voting on the teacher salary at tonight’s board meeting. I don’t know that very many parents in CSD know the whole story about what is going on with this particular subject, so please take just a minute to read this message.

I am sure most of you have heard about the shortening of the pre-k school year by the governor. Basically, the school year will decrease from 180-160 days. Many teachers throughout the state were concerned about this shortening of the year, but I think most everyone was relieved to avoid the half day proposition which was also on the table and let the issue rest when this “compromise” was made. HOWEVER, there is some very important information that went along with this bill that is not widely known and was certainly not publicized. Not only have teacher’s salaries been cut to reflect the number of days they are teaching, the state has also placed caps on the salaries. As it stands now in Decatur, a teacher with 4 years of experience, A Bachelor Degree, and a teaching certificate, will only make $31,303. Someone with the same credentials and 20 years of experience will only make $35,982. And someone who has devoted 30 years to teaching the children of CSD can only make $39,747.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sarah at College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center sends in info on their Summer Day camp being offered to graduating Pre-K students…

Summer Time is Here – Come and Have a Cool Summer at College Heights ECLC

Day Camp for all children who are graduating Pre-K students.

Registration includes field trips,transportation, breakfast, lunch and snack. Weekly Field Trips to Include: Swimming, The Atlanta Zoo,  The Center for Puppetry Arts,  Bowling and The Young Chefs Academy

Weekly beginning May 31st thru July 22nd.

Hours of Operation
8:00 a.m.—5:00 p.m.
$195 .00/ per week

To enroll, pick up your enrollment packet at the school.  Registration began Monday!