Select Board November 28 Meeting Recap: Board Discusses Child Care Subsidy Pilot Program, Votes to Approve Grant Application to Explore Regionalization of Elementary Schools
Potential Child Care Subsidy Program. Donna Kalinick, Assistant Town Manager, explained that the towns of Wellfleet, Dennis, Truro, Eastham, Chatham, Orleans, Dennis, and Harwich have created local pre-school subsidy programs in the last 5 years. As part of their broader commitment to try to find ways to provide assistance to residents of all ages, the Select Board voted to add investigation of creating a similar program as a goal in their FY24-25 Strategic Plan.
Ms. Kalinick described how a pilot program could be implemented in Brewster. “Based on the most recent enrollment data from Nauset Schools, we estimated that there would be approximately 110 to 120 eligible 3- and 4-year-olds”, said Ms. Kalinick. The program would be funded at $250,000 from available surplus overlay funds for the initial 3-year period, which the Finance Team has determined is a sustainable plan that will not impact the tax rate. The Town would hire a firm to help administer the program. As proposed, the program would be restricted to one child per family and could provide up $3,000 to $4,000 per child in financial assistance.
The Board heard from a number of residents who expressed their support for what was proposed and offered feedback on the program structure and eligibility requirements. Members of the Select Board also voiced their overall approval of the program. They plan to finalize the pilot program details in the next couple months so that an article can be brought to Town Meeting next spring. If approved, implementation for this program would begin for the 2024-2025 School Year (effective September 2024).
Elementary School Regionalization. Peter Lombardi, Town Manager, explained that the Town Managers and Administrators from the four member communities of the Nauset district have been meeting on a regular basis with the Superintendent over the past several months to discuss topics of mutual interest, including budgetary pressures, declining student enrollment, aging facilities, and upcoming capital expenditures. Orleans recently completed a code compliance study for their elementary school and Brewster Town Meeting approved $100k to undertake a similar evaluation of the Stony Brook Elementary School.
The state’s Efficiency & Regionalization grant program provides funding to help explore potential regionalization of services and other operational efficiencies in local government. The towns are interested in applying for this grant to collect data about the elementary schools across the district in order to make informed decisions going forward. Both the Brewster School Committee and Brewster Select Board expressed their support for submitting an application by the deadline in February 2024. To date, the Orleans and Eastham School Committees have also voiced their support for this initiative.