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At its meeting on Sept. 10, the Menlo Park City Council held a study session on city-run preschool programs, prompted by chronic underenrollment of the programs. According to a staff presentation to the council, early analysis of the local preschool landscape shows that “local preschools are struggling and are worried about their futures,” and Menlo Park is trying to understand why.
Menlo Park runs two child care centers, Belle Haven Child Development Center and Menlo Children’s Center.
Menlo Park is using Solutionary Advisors, a consulting firm founded by former Menlo Park City School District Superintendent Erik Burmeister, to analyze the city’s early learning and preschool programs.
“The question we are trying to answer is, how might the city of Menlo Park’s preschool programming better meet the community’s evolving needs while ensuring financial sustainability,” said Burmeister.
Belle Haven Child Development Center provides subsidized early childhood education for income-qualified families with children aged 3-5 years. The program also provides children with daily breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks. Services at this location are funded in part by a grant from the state. This location can serve up to 96 children. As of February, only 62 children were enrolled in the program.
Menlo Children’s Center provides market-rate early childhood education for children aged 18 months to 5 years. This location can serve up to 72 children. As of February, only 29 children were enrolled at the center.
The consultants are preparing to conduct a citywide survey of residents, in both English and Spanish, to understand the child care needs of Menlo Park families. The survey will be sent out to residents between Sept. 14 and Oct. 6.
A similar survey was conducted by San Mateo County in 2022, which concluded that a strong demand does exist countywide for preschool care. However, only 62 of the 1,160 total survey respondents lived in Menlo Park.
Menlo Park’s proposed survey includes the same questions as the county’s survey to allow for comparison of the results, according to the staff report. The survey results are scheduled to be presented to the City Council in November, and final recommendations on the future direction of the preschool programs are anticipated in February 2025.
Vice Mayor Drew Combs questioned whether a survey was really necessary to understand why city preschool programs are struggling with enrollment and financing.
“I can promise you that where you’ve seen the greatest decline is in that (transitional kindergarten) age (4 year olds), I don’t need a survey to tell me that,” he said.
Burmeister responded that despite the county’s survey data showing that there seemed to be a shortage of child care spaces in San Mateo County, there is not a “line out the door” for Menlo Park’s city-run child care services.
“We have a number of theories about why that may be, but we don’t know until we ask people,” he said. “Are we not offering the age bracket that the families need? Are we not offering the times that they need? Are there other factors that we just aren’t seeing?”
Burmeister said one change that may be considered in the future is the addition of infant care, but the city would need hard data about demand for that kind of program before pursuing it.
“Infant care actually takes quite a bit of investment to retool a program to do that,” he said. “Before we go down that road and put in that investment, getting some hard data would really help inform that decision.”
A changing preschool landscape
Burmeister says that interviews with local preschool directors indicate that the schools are struggling with lower enrollment trends and are concerned about the financial viability of their preschools.
The city’s preliminary analysis of preschool enrollment trends suggests declining birth rates and the introduction of California’s new universal transitional kindergarten program. Additionally, there are lasting impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to local declines in demand for child care services as parents work from home. The city and San Mateo County have predicted that this decline in demand will continue in future years
“One of the other reasons that I think we’re seeing a drop off is just the high cost of living in the area, and especially of housing,” said Council member Betsy Nash.
Data from an April report to the council on city-run child care programs shows that enrollment at both locations has been significantly lower than the centers’ maximum capacities for the last few years.
The city’s staff report indicates that recruiting and retaining staff, especially temporary staff, has also been a significant challenge.
“Many child care facilities have experienced pandemic-related staffing impacts from broader shifts in the labor market related to remote work,” says the report. The April report indicated that the city has no temporary child care employees on staff to help relieve full-time employees who may be sick or otherwise need to take time off.
Mayor Cecilia Taylor said she was very interested in exploring how the city may be able to boost pay for child care workers. She has previously voted against city salary schedules because she would like to see city child care workers paid better. City of Menlo Park child care teachers make between $56,448 and $75,706 per year. Child care teacher’s aides earn between $42,352 and $50,478.
“I know that you all are aware that I am very interested in a livable wage for our teachers,” said Taylor. “But (I am) not sure yet how to get there. If we expand the services and offer them to younger children, is there an opportunity to have a new job classification?”
