Tuition
As I have previously shared, the cost of operating a child care center is on the rise, and the amount of tuition that parents can pay is clearly a real factor. This is not just a Courtyard issue. This is a nationwide issue that is getting attention at the state and federal level. Child care centers are getting squeezed from both sides, income and expenses.
Overall, one thing is clear. We cannot keep operating at our current level without a tuition increase.
When factoring in the inflation of payroll, food, utilities, and other general operating costs, child care is facing an increase in parent tuition of up to $50 per week within in the next two years.
Many of our peer centers have already revised how they operate to help mitigate the higher costs, some have raised there tuition, and some have done both.
Candace and I have always took pride in offering a strong center. A center that offers a lot of hours of care, and offers the best care that we can provide with the work force we have available to us. We know we are open more than a majority of our peers and that we stay very active with providing a FUN atmosphere for the children our care. We enjoy providing this level of service to families. However, we have come to a point where it may be worth changing a few of our operations to keep the tuition from becoming quite so high.
I am working to establish a plan to modify some of our operations that meets the needs of the bulk of our Courtyard families. Some of our amenities are nice for families to have available to them, however are only actually utilized and needed by a small portion of our enrollment. It makes sense to trim costs in those least utilized operational areas first.
I have done a lot of creative thinking, and would love to have our Courtyard families input.
Thank you for CHOOSING Courtyard!
Christa
Mission
To review our operations, and modify if financially beneficial in effort to slow the rise of parents tuition.
Clarifications & Reminders
Courtyard has always hired many extra teachers that provide relief and coverage to our full time dedicated teachers. We are open 11 hours a day, so clearly we need more than a typical 40 hour work week worth of teachers.
Because of the amount of hours that we are open, we are forced to hire what we call floaters, and in doing so, it does add a significant amount to our payroll. These floaters cover afternoons, days off when teachers take PTO time, vacations, sick days and help when we have events. Limiting the overall time we are open would reduce these payroll costs.
In regards to the possibility of us being closed during holiday weeks, parents would still have tuition due each week even for weeks that we are closed. Being closed during these lower attendance times would lighten the cost of our payroll budget, and those savings would be spread out over the course of the 52 weeks.
Opening later and/or closing earlier than we do now shaves off time we are operating, which is a cost savings in payroll and other operations.
Friday's are our least attended days of the week, and often the day that parents choose to pick up early. There is a cost savings to cut down how many hours we operate a month on Friday's.
In regards to the 10:00 am rule...... Currently our expectation is for every child to either 1) Attend each day by 8:00 am or 2) Notify us of the need to attend after 8:00 am and we will keep a teacher there for that child until they arrive. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the classrooms are much smoother when each child attends by 8:00 am. The second reason is to manage our payroll, use our teacher time to when children needs to be here the most. Routinely having children arrive late impacts both of these situations.
If we implement a 10:00 am rule, this means regardless of the reason and communication, children could never enter into care past 10:00 am. This would allow us to manage our staff plan by 10:00 am each day to get the most out of our payroll budget. Here is the breakdown:
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When parents are known to have an absence or late arrival, parents should notify us as soon as possible, and preferably the day before.
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When parents are running late, parents should notify us by 8:00 am via text, email or a call to the center of what time they expect to be at the center so we can save a teacher.
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When children cannot attend by 10:00 am regardless of the reason, we will not allow entry into care that day.
REMINDER: Many parents seem to forget that we do require a 2 week notice when removing from Courtyard's enrollment. Please remember to grant us this notice, and please pay us for the weeks that we have reserved for you. Every year we have several families skip out on tuition, and it is a huge financial burden. We ask that parents be diligent about knowing their own financials and situations.
Candace and I do not intend to eliminate any of our teachers jobs. Their jobs may be modified as we change operations.
Timeline
February - Evaluate responses
March 1st - Individual Tuition Letters to Families
April 31st - First Date of Tuition Increases
Any and all communication regarding adjustments and tuition increases should be directed to myself, Christa. Candace and teachers are to be focused on providing the best day for your child, not worried about financial decisions. :)
I really appreciate every parent that takes the effort to complete this. The more input we have, the better chance we have of serving our families correctly.
Thank you for your support!
Christa