Short Contract Irks District
While voters were busy casting ballots on budgets and board members last Tuesday, the East Hampton School Board discussed the fate of its full-day prekindergarten program at the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, ultimately agreeing to offer 72 spots in next year’s program, 18 more than this year.
To avoid a lottery system for the program, the district “raised the amount we pay to the center from approximately $500,000 to $644,000 for the year,” said Richard Burns, the district’s superintendent. “It was one of the largest increases in our budget.” However, he pointed out that despite increased funding, the Eleanor Whitmore Center would not agree last week to a five-year contract the district had hoped for, and only signed on for one. The superintendent called it, “the best viable option we have at this point.”
Several board members appeared irritated by this news.
“This disappoints me,” said John J. Ryan Sr., a board member. “I thought we had an agreement. But we don’t have a viable option past a year.”
“This will be the third year for a one-year contract with them,” said J.P. Foster, the board’s president. “And the reason they gave us is that they’re not sure they will be in business after next year.”
“In every sense of the word, we are looking to expand,” the center’s administrative director, Maureen Wikane, said yesterday. “As all the research indicates, these early years are the critical years for child development and we continue to put forth our best effort to educate them.”
The center, which also offers tuition-based early education programs for younger children, has been providing the school district’s prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds for 20 years. In the 2015-16 school year, the district expanded the program to a full day.
“We are delighted to continue this relationship with the school district and look forward to future collaboration where the children flourish,” Ms. Wikane said. “We are thrilled to have finalized this contract and we are thrilled to be ready to register these children.”
Board members last week called the shorter contract “a ball from left field” and said it prompted “a total re-think.” Nevertheless, the board approved the shorter agreement and said meetings with the center would continue over the summer. Mr. Foster was the sole board member who opposed the motion and said, “We have to start looking at other options.”
Mr. Ryan, however, did not want to prolong the uncertainty for parents.
“We must let our population know we have a pre-K program. We have to do it. Otherwise it puts our parents nowhere,” he said.
The free program is open to students living in the district who will be 4 on or before Dec. 1. Registration will take place from 9:30 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday from June 12 through June 30 at the East Hampton School District office on Long Lane.
With Reporting by Carissa Katz