Community college program key in city’s pre-K plans
Professionals at SFCC’s Kids Campus would recruit, support and oversee providers
In the final days of campaigning for Tuesday’s special election on a sugary-beverage tax to fund preschool programs, city officials and administrators at Santa Fe Community College have been working behind the scenes on a plan to oversee the initiative.
Many voters have raised concerns about how the city would administer an expansion of prekindergarten classes if the 2-cents-per-ounce distributor tax on sugar-sweetened beverages is approved. Jeannie Oakes, an unpaid consultant on the pre-K initiative, said everyone has questions about that.
While some aspects of the plan are still uncertain, she said, the city and the college have developed a memorandum of understanding for oversight of the program that will be ratified after the election if voters approve the tax.
“It’s a delicate dance,” Oakes said. “People will either say that the city doesn’t know what it is doing and there is no plan,” or they believe the city already has set up the pre-K system and is ready to launch it, she said, assuming the tax will pass.
The plan calls for implementation of the preschool expansion to be divided between a volunteer commission of early childhood education experts and pre-K professionals at the community college’s Kids Campus.
The city estimates that the tax on sodas and other sugary beverages would bring in $7.7 million in its first year. Mayor Javier Gonzales, who introduced the tax proposal in November, said the city would start collecting the tax in December of this
year and launch new preschool classrooms by the summer of 2018. Not all of the programs would be free. Providers would have to develop a sliding-scale copay system for parents who can afford to pay for some of their child’s tuition.
Oakes said the Early Childhood Education Commission, which would review proposals from pre-K providers and dole out grants, “will be a mix of expertise: early childhood education authorities, financial people, someone who knows how city government works and parents with young children.” Gonzales and city councilors will decide how commission members will be appointed, she said.
Among the requirements for providers seeking the city’s pre-K funds: compiling a detailed budget of how the grant money would be used, prioritizing low-income children or offering dual-language programs, and holding no more than 20 percent of all available seats for children of families that can pay full tuition.
The city expects bids to come from a range of existing providers, such as Santa Fe Public Schools, the United Way of Santa Fe County, Head Start centers, and other nonprofit and private programs.
“We want to make sure these centers are integrated among children from different income levels and cultures,” Oakes said.
While the commission will handle the finances, the community college’s Kids Campus, which offers programs for more than 100 children between the ages of 8 weeks and 5 years, will recruit, support and oversee the providers. Kids Campus administrators will conduct annual reviews of their programs and financial management, and they will offer professional development opportunities for their teachers.
Jennifer Sallee, director of the Early Childhood Center of Excellence at the Kids Campus, said she has assembled a Workforce Development Board, composed of early childhood educators, to start assessing the needs that providers will have if the tax passes.
One thing providers want, she said, is “embedded professional development instead of one-time workshops. They want someone to come to their sites and work with them side by side and give feedback on their work. They want to discuss case studies — is this working, is that working? They don’t want just a big workshop where you go to a big conference once a year and that’s the extent of your professional development.”
Oakes said the city is exploring an idea to create a one-stop hub to ease the process of selecting centers and getting children enrolled by giving parents access to information on all the services offered. She said the college also will help educate parents about brain development and early learning.
After five years, the city would review the pre-K program and determine if changes are needed — including an increase or decrease in the tax base used to pay for it.
Early voting for the beverage tax ends Friday. Polling sites for the special municipal election will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 2.