SAUGUS — The Veterans Early Learning Center (VELC) received an unanimous 4-0 vote from the School Committee Thursday night for a tuition increase in the pre-K program, allowing them to also increase the number of students in the classroom.
Principal Michael Mondello was the one to speak at the meeting and propose the increase of tuition.
“My proposed recommendations for the pre-K programming are one to increase class sizes from 15 to 20 and also to increase tuition for our 4-year-old full day program by $500 and our 3-year-old half day program by $250,” Mondello said.
The 4-year-old tuition, currently $6,000 per year, would increase to $6,500, while the 3-year-old tuition, currently $3,150 per year, would increase to $3,400.
“The purpose of my recommendations first is to increase the opportunity for Saugus residents to have access to our unbelievable pre-K programming by adding five more seats per classroom,” he said.
Mondello continued that this would not only increase enrollment to 20 seats but also meet the demands of inflation and increases to contractual obligations and deal with the impact of inflation on instructional materials, which has impacted the school’s revolving account.
“I think part of this is to maintain fiscal responsibility while allowing our pre-K students to have access to high-quality instructional material and highly qualified teachers at a reasonable price point,” Mondello said.
He rounded out the reasons by saying that the increase would create a monetary buffer just in case class sizes change or there’s an influx of students who end up leaving the town.
“Some important data points that helped support my recommendation (were) we have no raised tuition in Saugus dating as far as I could ascertain in 10 years, so it’s been more than a decade since we’ve had an increase,” he said. “The average full-day tuition for the surrounding communities that do charge, because there are districts who are free, is $7,900. So, we’re well below even with the recommended increase.
“Lastly, I think the plan also allows us again, which is most important to me, to get as many students into our pre-K program to ensure their readiness for kindergarten.”
Mondello said that the parent pre-K information night the VELC held was well attended and that it was amazing to see all of the new families in town.
“During our parent night, we did mention that there was a proposed increase, and even with that mention, I’m happy to report that we are currently full… All of our seats are full. The lottery’s been completed, and all the seats that were available are full,” he said.
School Committee Chair Vincent Serino said that Mondello had answered all his questions during his proposal, and committee member Tom Whittredge agreed.
“Just one thing I want parents to know is that a revolving account obviously has to support itself, so when you look at something like this, that’s why it’s important,” Serino said.
Committee member Stephanie Mastrocola asked about the current ratio in the classroom.
“By law, we have two options. We can do 15 students, which is an 8-to-7 (ratio) split between role models and students who are on individualized education programs (IEP), or we could do 15-to-5. So, that allows us to have 15 role models who are paying students and five students who are on individualized education programs,” Mondello said.
He explained that students on IEPs do not have to pay for pre-K programming and that, with the tuition increase, the 15-to-5 ratio would help support the revolving account.
“And there’s one teacher in these classes?” Mastrocola asked.
Mondello explained that there was one full-time educator in each classroom for the 3-year-old and 4-year-old programming and a paraprofessional for each class.
“You talked about (how) all the seats are filled; is there a waitlist?” she asked.
He responded that there had been a waitlist, but based on parental decisions, no students are currently on the waitlist, which Mastrocola was glad to hear.
Committee member Ryan Fisher made the motion to approve the tuition increase, which was seconded by Serino and ended with the unanimous decision of “yes.”
