District Urges Raising Child-Care Fees 25%

Hoping to pull its child-care program out of the red, Conejo Valley Unified School District officials are recommending that the school board lay off six child-care assistants and raise program fees about 25%.

The child-care program is expected to finish the school year with a $180,453 deficit, which school officials attribute to operating costs higher than those anticipated when the program was established in 1988.

The school board will discuss the matter at a 7:30 meeting tonight at Westlake High School, 100 N. Lakeview Canyon Road in Westlake Village. Board members will cast their votes at a May 9 meeting.

Officials have proposed increasing fees about 25% to help erase the deficit over the next two years. Fees for before-school child care, from 7 to 8:15 a.m., would go from $65 to $80 a month while kindergarten child care, from 11:40 a.m. to 2:35 p.m., would increase from $90 to $120 a month. For children who receive after-school care, from 2:35 to 6 p.m., fees would go from $155 to $190 a month.

A total of 635 students are enrolled in the program at 15 elementary schools. The district is also considering offering a 2:35 to 6 p.m. program at Aspen Elementary School and an 11:40 a.m. to 6 p.m. program at Weathersfield Elementary School.

Other recommendations include laying off six of the district’s 21 child-care assistants, reducing the hours of the program’s clerk typist from six to 3 1/2 daily, charging $15 for care provided on school days when the staff works but children are not required to be at school, and eliminating the program during the first week of winter break.

In addition, the before-school program would be dropped at eight elementary schools because of low attendance, which would decrease the hours of eight child-care leaders from eight to 6 1/2 a day.

Elementary schools that could lose morning programs are Acacia, Glenwood, Madrona, Park Oaks, University, Walnut, Westlake and Westlake Hills. Morning programs would remain at Banyan, Conejo, Ladera, Meadows and Wildwood elementary schools.

The district has already decided to drop its summer child-care program for this year, which will save $7,500. Conejo Recreation and Park District will provide a program this summer at Ladera, Banyan and Westlake elementary schools.