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Preschool program is eliminated
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EARLY LEARNING: Theresa Herrick, co-owner of the Kidz Kastle preschool in Girard, helps pupils, Christopher Glunt, 5, left, and Mason Day, 3, with a puzzle. Herrick lamented the abolition of the state’s Early Learning Initiative program due to budget constraints.
GIRARD — A popular preschool program has succumbed to state budget cutbacks, but the co-owner of a participating center here vowed that her efforts to educate young children will not cease.
“We’ll fight for these kids’ education, whatever it takes,” said Theresa Herrick, co-owner of Kidz Kastle, a preschool and day-care center at 15 W. Liberty St.
Fifty-four of the 72 children served by Kidz Kastle are enrolled in the state-funded Early Learning Initiative program for children from low-income families, which will terminate Aug. 22.
“It sickens me. We were crying,” Herrick said, referring to staff and parents at her center. “I just wonder who is looking out for our children’s future,” she said.
“We’re going down some different avenues right now. We’re still going to teach,’’ Herrick said, adding that the center will retain a teacher with a degree in early-childhood education.
In a four-week period, private day-care centers, such as Kidz Kastle, are paid $536 for each child who attends full-time (100 hours) during that time; $381 for each child attending between 55 and 100 hours; and an hourly rate of $5 per child for children attending less than 55 hours.
Only families whose incomes are above 165 percent of the federal poverty level make co-payments, which can range from $150 to $400 per month based on family income. Less than 5 percent of participating families make co-payments, which they pay to the preschool on top of the state payment rate.
ELI’s income eligibility ceiling is 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($36,620 annually for a family of three).
Herrick said Kidz Kastle will try to enroll children under other government-subsidized preschool and day-care programs.
“I’m a little upset,” said Jackie Croteau of Cortland, whose 31‚Ñ2-year-old daughter, Lillian, attends ELI at Kidz Kastle. “Now parents will have to figure out something else if they work. What are they going to do? Where are they going to take their children?,” she asked.
A single parent, Croteau is a waitress and a full-time student in Youngstown State University’s bachelor’s degree program in nursing. She said she cannot afford to pay for preschool out of her own pocket.
ELI is a full-day program for children, age 3 to kindergarten or compulsory school age, that has operated year-round.
With a $132 million annual budget, ELI serves 12,000 children statewide, including 790 children in 30 Mahoning Valley centers under the auspices of the Mahoning County Educational Service Center.
Thirteen of those centers are self-operated by ESC, and those self-operated centers combined employ 150 people. The self-operated centers include the one at Youngstown State University’s Beeghly College of Education.
Lenal Morello, family services supervisor at the Mahoning County ESC, said the ESC’s early childhood leadership staff will meet Monday to explore other options for funding the centers and continuing to serve low-income children.
Any changes in the operation of those centers will be announced first to program staff in a Tuesday meeting, she said.
“Ohio, like many other states, is facing financial difficulties of historic proportions,” according to a letter announcing the pre-school program’s demise, which was sent Friday to ELI parents by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The letter invites parents to apply for a separate Ohio Subsidized Child Care Program through their county JFS departments, but it notes that parents must be engaged in work, training or educational activities to qualify for that program.
“Your child may be able to continue services at the same location where he or she is participating in ELI,” the notice said.
“The department wants to continue to support you and your child during these very important years of development,” the JFS officials told parents.