The Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board unanimously approved reinstating preschool tuition for the new school year during its Tuesday, July 9 meeting. The new rates will be $450 a month, or $250 a month for low-income students, and will allow SOCSD to fund a second preschool class with the assistance of philanthropists Basil and Mimi Maher.
“The unfortunate piece is that our state does not fund preschool,” SOCSD Superintendent Tom Swaninger said during the meeting. “We receive basically zero funding [from the state]; there are certain categories that we do receive some funding for preschool. But it’s nominal compared to what the cost is … to facilitate one classroom, it’s $176,000 a year. We just saw with what our budget looks like, that’s very substantial for a district to take on that cost year in and year out.”
“As you know, we’re 49th in the nation in school funding, which is not something to be really proud of,” SOCSD Governing Board President Randy Hawley said during the meeting. “I was a [school] administrator in a couple different states. And the tax structure [in] just about every state that I know of [is] that you bring in local property taxes. And then that money stays in the community and it goes to the police, the schools. So you keep the money that is from your community. Here in Arizona, you take a lot of money to send it to Phoenix and they send some of it backwards. And that’s very problematic.”
The new rates are intended to make the preschool program financially sustainable and double its capacity, but Swaninger said that SOCSD is not planning to expand the program further to serve everyone on the waitlist.
The program is currently staffed by one preschool teacher and two classroom aides, and two more aides will be hired at an advertised salary of between $16.30 and $17.25 an hour.
“Fortunately, we do have a family in our community that is willing to supplement and support up to doubling the amount of students that can have in preschool, but not alone,” Swaninger said during the meeting. “There’s another piece that we must have some type of fee that goes along with that.”
Swaninger said that district benefactors Basil and Mimi Maher have committed to assisting the program to break even for one year.
“We promised that we would make up the difference, if there’s any, to fund the second [preschool] class, and it’s not necessarily a one-year deal,” Basil Maher said. “But we believe that if people actually pay the fee, that the school will not only get the second [class] paid for but the first [class] also. And that would be good for the school, because then they can put that money towards other programs that they are solely needed for.”
Maher added that he was “absolutely” learning toward helping fund the program for multiple years if necessary.
“We think that the program will almost fully fund itself,” Maher said. “But if not, we are the backup to that and I would imagine we would do it for several years until it catches on.”
“I’m willing to put about the next week of my life aside and apply for a couple larger grants to help low-income children … attend that program,” Eric Wyles, the founder of the Cornville-based nonprofit Low Income Student Aid, said during the meeting. “We all know that those in the lower socioeconomic levels sometimes can’t afford to do that. And one of the things LISA does is we help bridge that gap.”
Wyles submitted a grant application to Arizona Complete Health on July 17, and anticipates a decision in six to eight weeks. LISA has also applied for the city of Sedona’s 2024 small grant program.
“This is a pilot program,” Swaninger said. “I’m very hopeful that if we show that this is a successful model, that we’ll be able to continue as is and even expand it. But as it is right now without other sources of funding, and other support, without [the Mahers] supporting the cause financially, it would be very difficult to sustain.”
