School District Looking to Charge for Pre-School

With growing interest among local families and declining state funding for pre-school programs, the San Bruno Park School District is looking to try something different next year to keep a public pre-school option available in the city. 

The school board is expected to hear a proposal at to start charging a fee for the district's pre-school program. There are currently three free programs offered at Allen, Belle Air and Rollingwood schools.

Two other pre-schools are run privately on district sites.

Pauahi McGinn, the director of the district's pre-school programs, said the fee-based option would be a great opportunity for families who want their kids enrolled in pre-school but who make too much to qualify for the school district's free program.

Charging a fee would also allow the district to bring in more students and bring back some of the pre-school staff that was laid off this year, McGinn said.

According to a staff report, the district is proposing to charge $25 per day for a three-day-a-week program. At that rate, the district could bring in $40,500, which would cover the cost to re-employ staff and some.

The following is also on today's school board meeting agenda:

• a final presentation from Belle Air Elementary about the progress of the school under its fifth year in program improvement
• adopting next year's budget
• an ongoing discussion about the district's plan to place a parcel tax on the November ballot

Today's school board meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at Crestmoor Elementary and will be televised on San Bruno Cable Channel 1.

For more news about San Bruno, follow San Bruno Patch on Twitter and "like" us on Facebook. Got Patch in your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter.