Dispatches: Preschool Cuts Rates To Keep Students

The sour economy has people worried—and understandably so—about everything from jobs and mortgages to the price of gas and food.

In Watsonville, where one-third of the population is under age 18, another concern for many families in the cost of education, and not just college tuition.

, in the Atkinson Lane neighborhood, dropped its rates significantly this fall after parents pulled their children from the Christian-based program because of increasing tuition costs.

Stacy Silvey, the director at Hearts and Hands, said she had to make a change because her program was losing families.

“We the economy and stuff, our enrollment had dropped pretty severely,” she said. “We’d never been this low in the six years I’ve been here.”

The school, housed at New Birth Baptist Church, can handle up to 70 students, from age 2 to entering first grade. These days, enrollment tops 40 and Silvey is hoping more families find they can afford the school now that costs have fallen.

For Dominic and Ofelia Tufo, Watsonville parents of fraternal twins, the tuition changes have had a direct impact.

“The rate cut was huge,” Dominic Tufo said. “When we first enrolled our kids in the program we had had them on a five-day-a-week schedule. When Hearts and Hands raised their rates, the pricing—just with the economy—it wasn’t realistic.”

The costs jumped from $180 a week to $194.

The Tufos, both managers for Costco Wholesale, scaled back their twins to three days a week until Silvey announced prices would drop to $180 a week.

 “We really appreciated it,” said Dominic Tufo, and his twins, Ofelia and Matteo, are back at school five days a week.

Silvey said she didn’t want tuition costs to be too high and prohibitive, but also believes families get what they pay for. There are lots of state-run preschools in Watsonville that are free or low-cost, set up to serve the neighborhoods they are situated in.

Hearts and Hands, in contrast, is a private program run by Central Coast Baptist Association, that draws students from as far north as Scotts Valley.

The school takes over the church during the week. Classrooms, set up by age, are brightly colored with bulletin boards showcasing student work and the curriculum.

But it is still preschool. There are diaper-changing areas for the youngest students, in case they aren’t potty trained, and everyone takes naps—most together in the church sanctuary.

The curriculum focuses on letters, colors, shapes and numbers and, as kids get older, expands to include a little science and math. It also includes Bible instruction.

Students have daily charts to monitor how they’re progressing and track how each day goes, and each classroom has a parent board to make sure the whole family stays informed.

The educational programs tries to get kids into the routine they will have once they start kindergarten, including homework assignments. Silvey goes to public school open houses to communicate with teachers about student expectations and brings that information back to apply at Hearts and Hands.

“We don’t want them to go in not knowing what to expect,” she said.. “We try to help them as much as possible.”

Elementary school teachers have told Silvey how prepared her graduates are for their classrooms. Parents notice, also. For example, the Tufos researched several preschools but eventually chose Hearts and Hands after a recommendation from friends who had sent their kids there and the children now are doing very well in kindergarten, Dominic Tufo said.

“We had actually heard a lot of good things about Hearts and Hands through word of mouth,” he said.

The other big draw for the Tufos, and many families where both parents work, was Hearts and Hands students can be dropped off as early as 6 a.m. and picked up as lat as 6 p.m. Though 12 hours of daycare isn’t ideal every day, the flexibility has been huge for his family.

“For working parents, you can see the convenience in something like that…. It was a super cool amenity,” Dominic Tufo said.