For nearly a decade, the free preschool in the Bolinas-Stinson Union School District has been a boon for families, offering vital early-childhood education and support to working parents. Five years ago, the program expanded to guarantee every 3-year-old in the area a tuition-free seat, a rarity in public education. But with the district now bracing for tighter budgets in coming years, the program’s future is tenuous.
At a meeting last week, school board members voted unanimously to take a preliminary step toward laying off both preschool teachers. They also proposed cutting a maintenance and bus driver role set to be vacated by an employee who has resigned. Trustees have until May 8 to make a final decision on the cuts, which the district says would save $360,000 a year.
“I would not be making this recommendation if I felt like something did not need to be done,” superintendent Leo Kostelnik said. “I want free 3-year-old programming, I want free 2-year-old programming, I want free afterschool programs. The issue that we’re facing now is that we want everything, but we’re not in a financial position where we can have everything.”
Though he emphasized that the district is not in dire straits, Mr. Kostelnik cautioned that a slowdown in property tax revenue threatens to tip the $6.3 million budget into deficit spending. For more than a decade, tax revenues regularly climbed by 5.5 percent, allowing the district to comfortably outpace its 4 percent annual expense increases while expanding programs and maintaining competitive salaries. But projections show growth dropping to 4 percent or less, which, he said, puts existing services at risk and may force the district to tap strategic reserves.
Seeking to avert a shortfall, Mr. Kostelnik proposed sunsetting the current preschool model, which this year enrolls six 3-year-olds, four 4-year-olds and seven transitional kindergarteners. Under his plan, the district has invited proposals for a public-private preschool serving 2- and 3-year-olds at the Stinson campus that could operate rent-free. Four-year-olds will be integrated into a state-mandated expanded transitional kindergarten, or TK, program that, starting next year, will accept children who turn 4 by Sept. 1.
Those 4-year-olds will be combined with 5-year-olds in a two-year progression—an approach the superintendent said would allow the reallocation of funds toward academic enrichment in a district where only 31 percent of students meet or exceed grade-level expectations in math and 44 percent meet or exceed them in English. English learners and students from low-income households fare far worse.
The looming financial crunch coincides with a new strategic plan aimed at ensuring all students can read, write and do math at grade-level expectations. Last month, the district launched an afterschool program that provides tutoring from teachers, financed by a combination of state and district resources. It serves 45 students and is free for low-income families.
Many parents were blindsided by the proposal, saying it neglects the district’s youngest learners. “I don’t know what we would have done without a free, public, universal preschool,” said Ben Lowrance, the school union’s chapter president and the parent of a first grader. “This plan for privatization is wrong-headed. A private preschool is not going to have a pension, it’s not going to have health care. A pay-to-play preschool is not fair, especially for people with the least.”
Parents also credit the current preschool teachers, Omar Rifkin and Nicole Amanson, for a nurturing setting that sets a strong educational and social-emotional foundation. “I have a 6-year-old who has been through this preschool program, and it was an invaluable experience that has shaped who he is and his confidence in life,” said Ashley Rich, a physical education teacher in the district. “I’m devasted by the thought of my 3-year-old daughter not having the same opportunity.”
Mr. Rifkin, who teaches in the very classroom where he was once a student, worries what will be lost if 4-year-olds are placed in an academic setting geared toward older children. “TK and kindergarten are not interchangeable,” he said. “Merging the two age groups ignores critical developmental differences.”
In his classroom, Mr. Rifkin describes learning as “undercover,” with students gaining exposure to math, language and science through play rather than desk work. “It’s not about the tests or the desired outcomes, it’s just information that’s getting shared in a very lowkey way as these children take their first steps into academia,” he said.
Milestones are met as his students learn to toss and catch, gallop, hop, leap and skip. They learn to jump far and high. To have balance and control. To hold a pencil with three fingers, use scissors, button, snap and zip. Go to the bathroom on their own, clean up the classroom, raise their hand, take turns. Ask for help.
Mr. Rifkin began his career in early childhood education over two decades ago, at age 19, at the private Montessori-inspired preschool once housed on the Stinson campus. After the district reclaimed that space, the community funded a portable classroom for two years before the district invested over $1 million to create a public preschool designed for 4-year-olds. Three-year-olds were later integrated after their private option closed during the pandemic.
“I don’t know the best solution to the financial problem,” Mr. Rifkin said, “but I do know we should give people the opportunity to come up with an answer that is not eliminating a much-needed program. Right now, there is no plan in place to meet the needs of 3-year-olds, and I think we’re rushing to a solution that might be detrimental to teachers, families and children in the long run.”
Mr. Kostelnik says the district has already implemented cost-saving measures—from cutting cafeteria staff to reducing the field trip budget—leaving the preschool as a lesser evil for balancing the budget. “This has been a long, hard look, not a short look,” he said.
Whereas the district’s transportation, cafeteria, visual and performing arts, P.E., special education, technology and afterschool programs receive state funding, the 3-year-old preschool program is not state-mandated and thus receives no financial support.
“It’s a general rule of public school budgets,” Mr. Kostelnik said. “If you need to save costs, you’re going to have fewer people than the year before. That’s just a hard reality.”
Without a program in place, families say they could be left scrambling for childcare in an area where options are scant. “Childcare out here is expensive and limited,” said Jeff Manson, who has two sons at the school. “My wife and I are low-income wage earners. Having a preschool that was free to us was huge in allowing us to keep our jobs and continue living here.”
Papermill Creek Children’s Corner, one of the few accredited preschools in West Marin serving 2- and 3-year-olds, is half an hour’s drive from Bolinas. Its director, Lourdes Romo, says the waitlist is long. “We have children who have barely been born and a few unborn children on our waitlist,” she said. Tuition can range from $1,325 to $2,050 per month, depending on a family’s income.
Hoping to preserve some form of universal preschool, the Bolinas Stinson Beach School Foundation is just beginning to explore ways to keep a program afloat.
“We want to help fund a solution that keeps a public preschool on campus,” said the foundation’s president, Leila Monroe, who has two children in the district. The group raised about $30,000 last year, but she hopes to expand fundraising efforts to help support larger district initiatives.