May 12th, 2020 Dear members of Menlo Park City Council, This letter is a submission of public comment regarding item E1 tier 2, elimination of preschool child care at Belle Haven Child Development center as reflected on today’s May 12, 2020 Special Meeting Agenda. The Belle Haven Child Development center receives a State preschool contract of over 1 million dollars. This amount continues to increase each year with the State’s May budget revision and annual amended reimbursement rate. In addition, the center receives a Big Lift grant from San Mateo County through Silicon Valley Foundation. This supports 90% cost of one full time teacher, one part-time office staff, one family engagement specialist, field trip expenses, and program supply expenses. Lastly, the program receives a QRIS (Quality Rating Improvement Scale) grant from San Mateo County Office of Education to support additional classroom supplies. This totals about 1.2 million dollars in external funding sources to operate the Belle Haven CDC pre-school center. Per item E1 Staff report 20-104-CC, Table 7: Tier 2 reductions, reference number 64, the City projects a savings of 1.7 million dollars with the elimination of the center’s pre-school care and 15 FTE’s. Hypothetically speaking, with the savings amount of 1.7 million in addition to the 1.2 million in external funding for operations, the program is assumed to be spending about 3 million on operations annually. With my time at the CDC, as the most recent coordinator for the past two years, this has not been the case in expenditures. Per the end of last fiscal, the total reimbursable expenses recorded with the State was 1.48 million. The center received over 1.1 million in contract and grants. In addition, with the high needs of the community, the program received an additional 106k from contract over-earnings in 2018-19 from the State which also offset any additional expense from City’s general funds. The program is again projected to over-earn this year. Thus, the estimation of 1.7 million dollars in savings with the elimination of the center’s pre-school is inaccurate. I believe there are alternatives to the elimination of care at the Belle Haven Center with the dollar amount of grants and State funds received to cover a majority of operation costs. In addition, if enrollment can be monitored, Belle Haven's State contract likely will over earn each year. If the center’s care is eliminated, Menlo Park will no longer have subsidized care available in the area. Most recently in the year of 2020, Ravenswood City School District made the decision to merge various elementary schools. Belle Haven Elementary, across from the center, will now house double the amount of families and students in the upcoming fiscal year. Thus, the already present high need of care in the community will increase at a faster and higher rate. Closure of the current program, impacting one of the high risk communities would mean children and families bearing the cost and consequences. Moving forward, continuing to create a trickle-down effect on the City of Menlo Park as a whole with two parts of the City continuing to be divided with a lack of equity. With my recent personal experience with the center and community, I’d like to note that if the City continues to receive the State contract of over 1 million along with additional grants such as Big Lift and QRIS, which neither are being removed in the near future, the program can continue operations with some adjustments. This can vary from re-evaluating the current allocation and spending model to restructuring classrooms, program, and staff positions. Lastly, has the City considered merging the two preschools in order to align services and offerings therefore closing the equity gap? The community and district heavily counts on the center’s services for the already at risk community. The program’s staff have a lot of potential based on their recent successes with program quality improvement ratings from Tier 3-Tier 4, out of 5. Therefore, qualifying to receive the QRIS Block Grant. Thus, a person who is experience in budget and versatile in Title V State fund and programming can continue to carry the success that have been re-instated at the center for the past two years. While it is understandable that there is an emphasis on revenue with regards to each operated program, State funded programs are unfortunately not one given the nature of the programs. If the State contract and grants are monitored effectively, the program can continue to thrive on the those monies. Thank you for the opportunity to submit a public comment and your consideration of the center’s crucial role in the lives of our communities. I hope this provides further understanding in the budgetary and operational stand point of the program and spare the center’s care from complete elimination. Sincerely, Carmen Lo Received on Tue May 12 2020 - 15:09:10 PDT
