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The Menlo Park City Council last week weighed strategies to address declining enrollment and ensure the financial health of its two city-run preschool facilities, the Belle Haven Child Development Center and the Menlo Children’s Center, which serve children ages three to five.
City Council members generally favored lower-hanging fruit options that were quicker to implement and less expensive.
A recent analysis of childcare needs, commissioned by the city and prepared by city staff in the library and community services department and consulting firm Solutionary Advisors, revealed several factors contributing to the challenges. They included the expansion of universal transitional kindergarten for kids less than five years old, changing work-life trends, declining birth rates, and evolving consumer information-seeking habits.
The findings highlight four key areas of need within the Menlo Park community: affordability, infant and toddler care, scheduling flexibility, and consumer awareness of the city’s preschool programs.
In a presentation to City Council on Feb. 11, city staff sought direction from the council on which of the eight potential strategies they should pursue to better meet Menlo Park’s pre-school needs. The council made no official decisions regarding the pre-schools and instead offered their views on the direction of the pre-schools. Staff will then further research the Council’s preferred implementation strategies, with detailed cost analyses and related considerations, for Council review ahead of the 2025-26 budget deliberations.
The eight options varied in terms of financial commitment and implementation timeframe. The City Council members generally expressed interest in strategies that could be implemented in 6 months and were fiscally conservative. This included creating flexible scheduling options at Menlo Childcare Center so that families could choose the days they use pre-school services – instead of being required to commit to five days of care per week – and having earlier drop-off and later pick-up times.
The council members also expressed interest in better marketing the city’s preschool options through techniques such as updating the school websites with more information, hosting community events, and utilizing city channels to “tell the story” of the schools.
The council members generally expressed disinterest in options that added additional costs, such as offering tuition discounts to middle-income families.
During the discussion, Council member Schmidt expressed uncertainty about the city’s role in providing preschool care, noting that in his own family, he didn’t think it would be the city’s role to provide these sorts of preschool services.
“I understand that there’s demand there, I understand that people would like certain things,” he said. “I’m just curious how (other) cities are seeing their role because it’s new to me. It’s not how I was raised.”
Council member and Menlo Park Mayor Drew Combs noted that the city already subsidizes the Menlo Childcare Center “in excess of a million dollars per year” and that substantive policy changes would mean accepting an increasing city subsidy for schools. He also noted that preschool is not an impulse purchase for parents, who are likely carefully researching their options.
“The changes that would be substantive come with its own risk and no guarantees that it’s going to solve the issue,” Comb said, referring to the preschools’ under-enrollment issue.
“I tend to be a little fiscally conservative until there’s certainty that the city’s on solid footing, and the overall economy is on solid footing,” Schmidt said, adding that he favored cost-neutral changes.
Council members Betsy Nash and Schmidt voiced support for offering discounts to city employees and local educators, noting it could help attract new staff. Nash and Council member Jennifer Wise also expressed interest in expanding childcare to 2-year-olds at Belle Haven Child Development Center, citing the need in the community. Nash expressed caution about increased slots for 18-month-olds at Menlo Child Center because of the greater cost to the city, while Wise expressed more openness to this idea.
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