A Denver program to help pay for preschool for 4-year-olds will be fully up and running months later than many city officials expected.
Denver voters in November approved the sales tax to pay for the education effort, and collections started in January.
“It is everybody’s desire to get this program begun as soon as possible,” said director Adele Phelan, who was hired earlier this month. “At this moment, it does not seem feasible to get the full- blown program functional by August of ’07.”
That was not welcome news to City Council members.
City Councilwoman Carol Boigon was surprised to hear that the full-start date would possibly be pushed back to January.
Boigon is the council’s representative on the program’s board of directors.
The ballot question approved by voters contained no official start date. But Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz said the initial information she received was that the program would begin with the new school year.
“I’m disappointed for the people who voted for this thinking it would benefit them (this fall),” said Faatz, the lone City Council member who voted against putting the tax on the ballot. “A child is only 4 once, and it will be a huge disappointment for those parents.”
Phelan said the board members are still wrestling with the details of implementing the program.
She said the group has been working hard to begin a limited version at school’s start.
In November, voters agreed to raise the sales and use tax by 12 cents on every $100 purchased to raise $12 million annually for preschool education. The program is aimed at funding child- care tuition credits for Denver families of 4-year-olds and providing money to improve preschool programs. It is expected to help 1,500 to 2,000 children each year.
Credits will be distributed based on financial need and the quality of the preschool program selected.
But Phelan said just how all that will work remains to be determined. The board that oversees the program is still discussing how to rate a quality program, how to scale need and exactly who is eligible.
“We really are moving along very well,” Boigon said. She added the difficulty is “clearly because there is so much infrastructure in creating a nonprofit from scratch.”
Mayor John Hickenlooper on Feb. 15 announced his appointments to the seven-member board and a 25-member advisory board.
The City Council’s legislative process required for approval of the appointees finished March 12.
The board did not begin meeting until March 27.
Articles of incorporation were filed in late March to set up a nonprofit that will receive and distribute the tax revenue, but that, too, is still being finalized.
“This was a November election, so people may have assumed that it could be up and going by the fall,” said Phelan. “If you haven’t really worked with the details of it, you can see how people would think that.”
Still, Councilman Charlie Brown called a January start date “a setback.”
“I would think a year would be enough time,” he said.
Meanwhile, some preschools’ directors said they have been left in the lurch as parents ask about next fall.
“I’ve been asking and trying to find out what the plan is,” Denison Montessori principal Beth Hamilton said. “It sounds like a wonderful program, and I think it would be a wonderful match for our parents and students.”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-954-1657 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
