R-II School may lease ElDo Youth Center

Supt. Mark Koca told the board Thursday night, April 12, “We are getting some ADA next year for pre-school kids. As we know, the ElDo Youth Center may be available. We are going to get somewhere around $150,000 off of that Pre-School ADA. That would be a nice thing to offset some of those losses we are taking in the daycare. We have already addressed that by raising prices for next year and some other things. I think we will come a lot closer next year. So, we have been kicking around the idea of the possibility of throwing some of that money at leasing that building and providing another 30 to 40 slots for 4-year-old pre-school.”

He told the board, “Here’s my rationale behind that:

“A. We have a building available which is not always the case. So we have a place to put it without undue strain.”

“B. My goal here is to reach those kids that are out in the district that the first day they set foot on campus is their first day of kindergarten. If we can get those kids in here for half a day or full day pre-school, and yes, we will probably have to provide transportation to get them here. Kindergarten teachers say it takes 12 to 15 weeks for kindergarten kids to get really into the groove. What would happen in the 12 to 15 weeks is already behind them when they walk into kindergarten on Day 1 ready to rock and roll?”

“That’s what I’m thinking about. We struggle with some of those kids whose parents don’t have a lot of resources available to them. I think there is an opportunity there to really help some kids out educationally and two or three years later when they hit the MAP test for the first time, watch out. They could be well ahead of the game and that could carry on through on throughout their entire career. We know it will level out over time.”

“So that’s an idea I have. What I’m looking for here is board permission to pursue it. Bring some numbers back to you. Obviously, it’s going to have to pay for itself. There will probably be some blowback from some of the local daycares. If we are going to do this, I recommend we schedule a public hearing and let these folks be heard. Then we will kind of know where we stand.”

“I think, given the waiting list we have and the waiting list I’ve heard that all the daycares have… I’ve heard a lot about it because I’ve got a son and a daughter-in-law who are struggling to get into daycare right now… that there is probably greater demand than we even realize.”

“If we do the 4-year-olds, that still leaves 3-year-olds that are going to need daycare. And if we move over to the other building with the 4-year-olds, I can take some space down here and expand our daycare. I’ve got a waiting list as long as your arm.”

“We’ll go into closed session and talk about the real estate side of this.”

Board Member Terry Shepard said, “I think it is an excellent, excellent idea…”

“We would be responsible for the interior. They will take care of the exterior and the grounds and the insurance.”

The board asked Supt. Koca to run some numbers and set a public hearing.

He said, “We will put some wheels in motion and kinda see where that goes.”