Okemos leaders discuss cutting infant/toddler childcare as district faces $1.6M deficit

Superintendent Hood told the Okemos Board of Education that Community Education’s childcare operations have stopped contributing to the district’s general fund and recommended discontinuing Edgewood’s infant and toddler classrooms and a Montessori afternoon enrichment program as part of a strategy to address a $1.6 million revised budget deficit. Hood framed the discussion as a request for board direction, not a formal action.

The district’s child care coordinator, Christina Allegari, and Lara Slee, director of diversity, equity and inclusion, presented a reorganization plan focused on keeping grant-funded Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) classrooms and concentrating district resources on 3- and 4-year-old programming. Allegari said staff had identified families affected by the proposed cuts and that she would provide a fuller household count; she told trustees the district had identified 15 families in the infant/one-year-old program, 11 families in a two-year-old classroom and 11 families in an enrichment classroom and agreed to provide a complete list of affected households on follow-up.

The proposal would discontinue infant and “toddler 1 and toddler 2” rooms and the Montessori afternoon enrichment program, maintain four existing GSRP (state grant-funded) classrooms, continue a tuition-based 3-year-old classroom and keep before-and-after care for preschool and elementary students at Edgewood. The presenters said the infant/toddler programs were running a roughly $250,000 annual loss and the Montessori afternoon enrichment about $82,000.

Allegari outlined a tentative transition timeline: communicate with…