District Squeezing Community Pre-Schools, Providers Say

The Newark School district is using aggressive tactics to compete with privately run preschools in the city, according to several providers, who say that it is becoming increasingly difficult to fill seats.

Privately run preschools were encouraged by the state years ago as part of an effort to increase access to early childhood education in the state’s poorest school districts resulting from a state Supreme Court decision known as Abbott v. Burke, which mandated high-quality preschool for all 3 and 4-year-olds in affected districts.

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In Newark, the district educates roughly 3,795 preschool children in district schools, and 53 privately run schools educate another 2,600, according to the NJ Department of Education . The privately run preschools are free, but funded through the district.

Experts believe that private pre-K providers need to be protected in the childcare ecosystem of cities because they not only offer early schooling for three- and four-year olds, but they also provide care for babies so that mothers can return to work, and employment as small businesses.

The current model has districts controlling the funding for these private community providers, causing, at times, tense relationships.

“At one center, parents started receiving calls, the week before school started, advising them to disenroll from our program and enroll at the local school because they could not guarantee them a kindergarten slot in the future,” said Peter Rosario, the executive director of one of Newark’s largest private providers of pre-school, La Casa de Don Pedro.

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“Community providers are really at the mercy of the district, and we know not all relationships are amicable. Especially when you're treated poorly, and one person holds that much power over your livelihood. That's a lot of power for one entity to hold,” said Winifred Smith-Jenkins, director of Early Learning Policy and Advocacy at Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ), which recently testified in Trenton about how these “mixed-delivery models” are working.

She stressed the need for a respectful partnership between districts and these community providers.

Smith-Jenkins raised numerous issues with how the current model works. One main point of inequity, being compensation.

“You're supposed to pay your teachers comparable to what they pay in district, but a lot of times it is not comparable and so providers also don't have the ability to hire, to attract, and retain teachers for a long time because of that inability to compete with the district,” she said.

Based on a community survey conducted by the ACNJ, 65% of Abbott community providers have substitute teachers working in classrooms due to the challenge of finding certified educators. Additionally, Smith-Jenkins said that there are many novice teachers working at community providers, leading these schools to become like training grounds for teachers that districts can later hire.

During the May 2 Newark Board of Education reorganization meeting — the same meeting where Lisa Gray from the Office of Early Childhood voiced concerns about the toxic environment within her department — Virginia Atahualpa, a 33-year teacher at La Casa de Don Pedro, shared her own frustrations with how their partnership with the District is going.

She said during the public comment period that her office has been “raising the alarm” on its understaffing issues for months.

Atahualpa said that they have asked the board to approve funding for two additional staff members, though they were told that current staffing ratios say they are sufficiently equipped to handle their students.

“To continue to ignore this problem, that’s a disservice both to us educators and Newark preschool students,” Atahualpa said.

During a phone call, Rosario, La Casa’s executive director, supported Atahualpa’s public statements. Rosario said that the office could have approved their request for additional seats but didn’t. The office’s response came in the form of a “terse note,” he said.

In Rosario’s opinion, funding and staffing ratios have gotten out of whack in terms of what is being delivered to students and families. He also believes that the board could work more collaboratively with the community providers.

“The district tends to stand behind, ‘Well, we're just enforcing the contract.’ The reality is they also have the flexibility to work with the providers, and they choose not to in many situations,” he said.

La Casa has seen its staff members hired out from under them by the district repeatedly and they are suffering the consequences.

“We had a staff member leave us the same day to go to NPS. We will have a teacher resigning on a Monday and their last day is Friday,” Rosario said.

Further, Rosario said that families in their community are being given false information by the district.

While Rosario understands the enormous pressure the district is under to drive enrollment, he thinks things have gotten out of hand.

Ironbound Community Corporation CEO Hazel Applewhite said private providers should not be forced to compete with the district for young students.

"Private providers are currently encountering difficulties in filling our classes,” Applewhite said. “It is crucial to review enrollment strategies in partnership with the district to devise a plan that allows providers to fill classrooms without fostering competition between the district and providers."

While the work of the Office of Early Childhood is immensely important and far-reaching, the office’s perception both internally and externally is coming under fire.

When asked to comment about the public statements made as well as the staff reportedly leaving the office, the district’s spokesperson Nancy Deering declined to comment.

“To me, the relationship with the childcare providers is the worst it has ever been. The levels of toxicity and the lack of respect for providers is palpable. The district hates when somebody says the term ‘stealing’ of staff and of children, but it's just going on unfettered. I have worked throughout the state and do not recall having such a poor relationship with my local school district,” Rosario said.

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