Lakeville community education reports high demand, limited preschool capacity and operating deficits

Lakeville Area Schools’ community education director told the board May 27 that the district’s community education program is operating at high demand but constrained by facility capacity and funding rules.

Steve Porter, director of community education, said the department recorded roughly 25,000 registrations last year across 16 program areas — early childhood, before- and after-school care, summer programs, enrichment, adult basic education and facility use. ‘‘We have 92,000 estimated hours of indoor facility use last year,’’ Porter said, and community satisfaction metrics remain high.

Nut graf: While registrations and use have rebounded after the pandemic, leaders said Crystal Lake Education Center is at capacity, Small Wonders Preschool and other early-childhood slots fill quickly, and some community-education programs operate at a deficit. The department recommends evaluating space and funding choices to serve more families and reduce off-campus PSEO spend by expanding concurrent enrollment on high school campuses.

Porter and Molly Dexter, director of early childhood education, walked the board through core services and numbers. Porter estimated that Crystal Lake Education Center sees about 1,125 unduplicated visitors per week during the school year and that many early-childhood slots are filled months in advance. ‘‘We have to turn away families every year,’’ Porter said, citing both schedule constraints and building capacity.

Funding and program rules Porter explained community education finances are kept in a separate fund by statute. Some programs are fee-based (Small Wonders Preschool), others use a sliding scale (ECFE) and adult basic education is state- and federally funded and must be offered at no charge. Porter said the department currently subsidizes some countywide or district priorities using revenue from fee-based programs; for example, facility-use application fees are the only revenue the community education fund retains directly — most facility rent is remitted to the district general fund.

Porter said community education is not uniformly self-supporting: certain programs carry deficits even as the department overall manages toward a positive fund balance. ‘‘We were in the negative during COVID and have since rebounded, but some program areas need cross-subsidies to continue operating,’’ he told the board.

Early childhood demand and equity issues Dexter said early childhood screening and preschool scholarship programs aim to identify needs early and direct resources where early intervention will have the greatest long-term payoff. The board discussed that a large share of families in the district are not served by district-run preschool programs because slots are limited; Porter said unduplicated participation is lower than the total registration counts suggest and confirmed capacity constraints at Crystal Lake mean many families are placed on wait lists or choose other districts.

Facility use and community priorities The presentation also covered facility use and the department’s role running evening and weekend rentals, lifeguard and technical staffing for pools and theaters, and scheduling for school-hosted community events. Porter noted that while community education handles scheduling and logistics, most rental revenue goes to the district general fund; community education keeps only a modest application fee and uses other program revenue to cover additional operational costs such as custodial overtime and supervision for large events.

Board comments and next steps Board members praised the community education staff and requested deeper financial detail in future briefings about which programs require cross-subsidy, potential fee comparisons with neighboring districts and options to expand early-childhood capacity. Porter said staff will prepare a deeper facilities-and-finance briefing for a future meeting.

Ending: The board asked staff to return with a more detailed plan on early-childhood capacity, program-level finances and options for increasing concurrent enrollment offerings on campus to retain student college-credit activity in-district.