The Clark-Pleasant Early Learning Center will raise its tuition and establish a late pickup fee schedule beginning next school year.
After reviewing fee structures, school administrators found that the center was “well below the market rate” for tuition, enrollment fees and supply fees, said Austin Fruits, Clark-Pleasant’s director of finance and budget. The Clark-Pleasant school board approved fees in a unanimous 5-0 vote Monday.
“We want to be competitive with the preschools and the daycares around us with what they charge, but we also want to have a self-sustaining program here,” Fruits said.
The Early Learning Center offers classes for preschoolers and pre-K students, aged 3 and 4. The program offers half days from 8:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., and full days from 8:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
The new fees would increase tuition by $50, enrollment fees by $25 and instructional supply fees by $15. A half day would now cost $350 a month and a full day would cost $650 a month. The enrollment fee now costs $75 to secure a spot, Fruits said.
Instructional supplies include consumables or classrooms, replacement materials and equipment for rooms. The new rate will be $85, he said.
Both the enrollment and instructional supply fees will be in line with an Indiana Family and Social Services Administration market rate study, officials said.
The fees are not the only change in store for the Early Learning Center.
A two-day-per-week peer model will be introduced starting next school year. The program will enroll a total of 10 students who will attend two days per week in peer-models or self-contained classrooms. The two-day-per-week model will cost $150, Fruits said.
To help mitigate issues with late pickups at the center, a late fee will be added for the 2024-2025 school year. Late pickups are defined as being five minutes or more late.
No fees will charged for the first late pickup, but a second late pickup would add a $10 fee. The third would add a $20 fee and the fourth would add a $30 fee, Fruits said.
School board member Dave Thompson asked what would happen after the fifth late pickup.
“Hopefully we don’t get to that point,” Fruits said.
But if it were to happen, the school would charge the $30 fee, he said. Board members also asked about the finances of the preschool and whether or not the school was in debt or owed money.
The school hasn’t gotten to the point of making profits, but it is “running less of a deficit,” Fruits said.
“But we’d like to get that as close to zero as possible,” he added.
Board member Butch Zike asked if the two-day-per-week model would still charge the same tuition during the months when schools will be on break. The model would be the same as the half and full-day models where students may miss a few days, but the full price would stay consistent, Fruits said.
Zike still had concerns, however.
“But that’s half the time,” Zike said. “I look at instead of having them eight or 10 times for that month, we have them for four.”
School officials will discuss discounts for those days with the director, Fruits said.
