Putnam Leg. Proposes County Subsidy for PARC Preschool
forum on Saturday, March 23 at Putnam Hospital Center.
Members of the Putnam County Legislature’s Health, Social, Educational, and Environmental Committee may have come up with a way to keep the PARC (Putnam ARC) Preschool open for another year.
The legislature made a motion at a special meeting of the Health, Social, Educational and Environmental Committee Meeting on April 26, 2013 to ask County Executive Maryellen Odell for $150,000 to fund the PARC Preschool program for the first half of the 2013-2014 school year. Since the county is in the middle of its fiscal year, the county charter states that only the county executive can allocate funds not originally written into the county budget.
The special meeting, which was attended by a number of PARC preschool families and staff members, and members of PARC’s Executive Committee including PARC Executive Director Susan Limongello, was chaired by Legislator Sam Oliverio, who indicated that funds to assist the preschool could be used from surplus sales tax money.
PARC announced on March 20 that it would be closing its 59-year old preschool program, located at 125 Baldwin Place Road in Mahopac, due to a long-term funding issues and program deficits related to reimbursement rates.
The motion will be brought to the county executive for her approval at the next full meeting of the legislature, slated for Wednesday, May 1 at 7 p.m. at the Old County Courthouse Building.
“This is a stop-gap measure that buys us a year,” said Legislator Anthony DiCarlo during the special meeting. “If we don’t take care of our own, nobody will.”
In the days and weeks after the announcement, public outcry against the closing of the preschool was seen in local papers, in editorials, at the annual Putnam County Legislative Forum for People with Disabilities on March 23, 2013, and on the internet, including an online petition that has nearly 1,200 signatures.
“We have tremendous support from the county and from the people who live in Putnam County to keep the preschool going,” said PARC Executive Director Susan Limongello. “The County Legislature has been working tirelessly to help us survive and we cannot thank them enough. This will save 54 children’s education and 47 employee’s jobs for one more year. We will then have an opportunity to work with the New York State Education Department to get our rates changed so that we can survive long into the future.”
The Legislature’s Health, Social, Educational, and Environmental members also passed a resolution on April 12, 2013 urging New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo to reconsider the funding that the preschool currently receives.
PARC preschool currently has 53 children, ages 3-5, enrolled in the program. Of those 53 children, 42 are graduating in June. PARC preschool currently employees 47 full and part time staff members. In addition to school-based programs and services, the preschool staff members also perform 70-80 multidisciplinary evaluations annually.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
