ORANGE : Parents’ Day-Care Fee Plan Rejected

Parents promoting alternatives to an Orange Unified School District plan that will require part-time day-care students to pay full-time fees lost their fight before the school board this week.

The plans put forth by Parents Concerned for Fair and Safe Childcare, which included up to 14 pay schedules to serve different levels of need, could not guarantee the $135,000 per month the district must raise to support the program and ease its $250,000 deficit, Robert Howell, director of pupil services, told the school board.

More than 900 students have already registered for full-time day care next year, enough to support the program, Howell said.

But Don Ebberts, a member of the parents’ group, said most people have registered to reserve a spot for their children while hoping the board would rescind the tuition hike. Most of the district’s 1,081 day-care students need only part-time care, he said.

The parents’ plans would have brought the district $20,000 more each month while allowing parents to pay only for the care they needed, Ebberts added.

“They just threw away $200,000 a year,” Ebberts said. “That wasn’t very fiscally responsible, was it?”

Before the district’s tuition increase, monthly fees ranged from $41 to $253, Ebberts said. Monthly fees for the coming school year will be $220 for kindergarten, $160 for grades 1-3 and $140 for grades 4-6. Day care before school hours will cost $40 extra per month.