The cost for most students attending the Riverside Elementary School District 96 preschool is going to increase by 5% next year.
On Dec. 20, the District 96 Board of Education unanimously approved raising the tuition for the preschool, which serves kids ages 3 to 5, to $3,573 annually, or $397 a month for the nine months that the preschool is open.
The District 96 preschool, like all preschool programs operated by public school districts, is what is known as a blended program, which means it includes children who have individual education plans and those who do not. By state law, the families of preschool students with IEPs, often for some time of development delay or learning disability, do not pay any tuition because the school district is legally obligated to provide those students preschool services without any charge.
The District 96 preschool, which is located at Ames School in Riverside, has four blended classes, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, which meet for 2.5 hours a day. There are 40 tuition paying students in the blended classes and 23 students with IEPs.
“The goal is to have an inclusive community setting,” said Supt. Martha Ryan Toye.
There are also two classes for students with more extensive needs that serve 14 other students with IEPs.
Each blended class has one teacher and two paraprofessionals.
In recent years, the District 96 school board has been trying to peg its preschool tuition increases to its annual levy, which is tied to the rate of inflation and capped at 5%. This is the second straight year of a 5% tuition increase. Previous increases were lower. In the 2021-22 school year, the increase tuition increase was just 1.4%.
“We are continuing to increase it at the rate of inflation,” said school board member Joel Marhoul.
School board authorizes three more ELL teaching positions
In other action at the school board’s Dec. 20 meeting, the school board unanimously approved creating three more full-time positions in the English Language Learner department, which teaches students whose native language is not English. It is not clear whether those positions will be filled during this academic year because state rules prohibit Illinois public school districts from hiring teachers who work in another district during a school year.
District 96 has 51 more nonnative, English-speaking students this year than last year, including some who are recent migrants to the United States.
“We have had an increasing number of foreign-born students and their families who have recently arrived in the United States,” said District 96 director of teaching and learning Angela Dolezal in a memo to Ryan-Toye laying out the need for additional ELL staff.
Dolezal said ELL students at Ames and Central School need more help than they are getting.
“All ELs receive the minimum required minutes of services; however, many ELs and their families require more than the minimum to realize their full potential in Riverside District 96,” Dolezal wrote. “With an increase in newcomers at Ames Elementary School and Central Elementary School, a higher level of support is needed at these two schools. However, our current department staffing does not allow more time to support Ames and Central Elementary Schools.”
The priority of placement of any new hires would be to support higher levels of need at Ames and Central; to support higher levels at L.J. Hauser Junior High School, outplaced students and to increase family liaison services. It is also to grow the district’s family liaison services and to support increasing needs at Blythe Park School, as needed.
“This is definitely filling a need,” said school board member Dan Hunt.