Pre-K Programs 

     If the application process is in full swing for your school, you might be wondering what type of effect a Pre-Kindergarten program could have on your school.  Some of the advantages are that it gets parents into your school earlier than Kindergarten, children start to interact with other children, and parents will begin to make relationships with other parents and school administration.  It's one of the best "admissions" tools out there, since a positive experience will make your Kindergarten program a consideration when that time comes.

     But will it?  Do your parents choose your Pre-K program because it's competitively priced to other "daycare" options that they have, or do they choose your program because it's a precursor to the Catholic school education they desire for their children.

     If your school has Pre-K programs priced at $750 for 3-year-olds and $1050 for 4-year-olds, parents may not take kindly to full-day kindergarten tuition which is triple or quadruple that amount.  Even if the average amount your parents pay per child may be half of what your announced tuition is, delivering that message to parents during their Pre-K 4 year is too late.

     Pre-K programs in a Catholic school, for the most part, have more enrollment than does Kindergarten - for the simple reason that the vast majority of public schools do not have the advantage of Pre-Kindergarten programs.  To maximize the effectiveness of the Pre-K presence for your elementary school program, here are two suggestions:

     1) Begin to educate parents about Kindergarten as soon as the children are in the 3-year-old program.  Consider the fact that applications to Kindergarten will begin about 3 months into their Pre-K 4 year, to wait until a child is in Pre-K 4 to expose the parent to your Kindergarten program is too late.  Also consider the high school to college recruitment process.  High School Juniors are seeking out their colleges, and take their SATs toward the end of their Junior year.  Many of them receive their acceptance letters at the start of their Senior year.  This process must be mirrored on the other side of the K-12 experience.  Taking this concept a little further, if you want them in your Pre-K 3 program, you must start the education process with the parents - yes - right after their child is baptized as an infant.  This process sets the stage for life-long learning, too.

     2) If parents are making the decision to enroll in your Pre-K 3 program purely because, as some parents have said, "It's cheap daycare," then another strategy may be helpful in your planning.

     Let's say your Pre-K program has 72 children - 36 of them are in Pre-K 3 at $750 and 36 of them are in Pre-K 4 at $1050 as specified above.  Perhaps you have two teachers (perhaps you have more?) that share the Pre-K program responsibilities.  Let's do the math, assuming that each Pre-K teacher makes $25,000 in salary and benefits.  36 x $750 = $27,000; 36 x $1050 = $37,800, for a total income of $64,800.  The teachers create an expense of $50,000, leaving the school with a $14,800 advantage.

     However, if you increase your Pre-K 3 tuition to $1500, and your Pre-K 4 tuition to $2100, suddenly half of your parents may choose another program.  This leaves your school with 18 Pre-K 3 students and 18 Pre-K 4 students.  If you have only 1 Pre-K teacher, your income remains the same, yet your net advantage increases to $39,800...AND you attain the ability to create a waiting list.  Once a waiting list is created, demand for your product will increase.  The other advantage to this strategy is that a jump to $3000 or $4000 for a full-day Kindergarten program is not out of line with the increased tuition structure, and you may matriculate a higher percentage of your Pre-K students to Kindergarten.

     Plus, if you've aligned your Pre-K curriculum so that they're receiving religious instruction, as well as preparing them to be able to enter Kindergarten, how much more of an advantage to the children (and their parents) is your program?  That's value - for a values-based education.

© Michael V. Ziemski, SchoolAdvancement, 2007

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