Denver’s new preschool program is planning an aggressive $1 million outreach effort to boost enrollment.
James Mejia, chief executive of the Denver Preschool Program, on Tuesday told members of the Denver City Council that the program plans a blitz of television and newspaper advertising, along with grassroots outreach, including signing up children at festivals and fairs.
The public relations firm Schen kien will coordinate the outreach effort.
Currently, about 695 students are attending spring preschool programs, Mejia said. He said he hopes to boost that attendance to 3,800 by the next school year, which begins in August.
Although 695 students are attending preschool through the program, another 526 are approved to start in August. An additional 898 applications are being processed.
“It’s still a very ambitious goal, but we think we can get it,” Mejia said.
He said there’s no deadline to enroll. Parents can enroll their children any time and start receiving subsidies to pay for preschool immediately after approval.
Mejia said the program budgeted about $4.4 million in tuition credits for students this year.
In all, the program has about $11.8 million in income, $11.2 million of which will come from sales tax revenue.
Voters narrowly approved paying for the program in November 2006 through a sales-tax increase of 1.2 cents on every $10 purchase.
Jeanne Faatz, who opposed the tax increase, said she would like to see more of the money directed toward subsidies and less toward quality improvement programs for preschool providers.
“It looks like there are going to be a lot of expected expenses that don’t reach the children, bureaucratic- type expenses,” Faatz said.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
