Appropriate to ask Director if She's Paying Teachers?

[Anonymous]

Our daycare is open, but only families with healthcare personnel are sending their children right now. The rest of us (about 25 other families) have agreed to keep our kids home and still pay. Of course, they're only staffing a teacher or two which makes sense as the numbers don't warrant more and why not keep more people safe. But with the rest of us paying, I would like the owner to continue paying the other teachers even if they aren't needed at work right now.

I know the owner participates in "ratio cuts" during normalcy, meaning if kids don't show up, she sends teachers home without pay. Even when we don't send DD, which is often, we still pay, so why shouldn't the teachers continue to be paid?

I admit I don't know about the business model of daycare centers and if this practice is built in for expenses or if it's to increase the owner's profits, I guess it's not my business, but I just want everyone to be taken care of and treated fairly, especially now. Is it inappropriate to ask if she's still paying teachers through this crisis? If she isn't, should I stop paying tuition and reach out to DD's teachers and offer it to them directly on the side to help? If they aren't being paid, I can't imagine they don't need the support.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Absolutely yes.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely you can. Our center has sent VERY long emails and newsletters explaining everything, including how they're paying the teachers and the fact that the owner and his wife aren't taking a salary.

They've detailed everything, which I appreciate. You deserve that transparency.

[Anonymous]

Please do ask. I'd be livid if the staff can't afford food.

[Anonymous]

As a preschool teacher - yes. Our owners collected tuition for March but laid everyone off in mid-March. They have asked parents to continue paying tuition if they can. So these monies are going straight into the owners’ pockets. They will not get a small business loan. It’s infuriating. Unemployment is 40% of our normal take home pay, which isn’t much to begin with.
Your tuition dollars largely go to support teachers. If your owners are not %100 transparent about where those funds are going - to pay teachers so they can feed their families, you should be paying a considerably reduced amount to cover the schools rent and to keep the lights on.
While it is true that we will still need jobs when this is all over, this has definitely opened my eyes and made me reconsider whom I want to work for when schools do reopen. I have 20 years experience and a master’s degree so I may very well go to a school that cares a bit more for their employees. The employees who stay will likely be the ones who can’t get a teaching position elsewhere.
It’s a lose-lose for teachers and parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a preschool teacher - yes. Our owners collected tuition for March but laid everyone off in mid-March. They have asked parents to continue paying tuition if they can. So these monies are going straight into the owners’ pockets. They will not get a small business loan. It’s infuriating. Unemployment is 40% of our normal take home pay, which isn’t much to begin with.
Your tuition dollars largely go to support teachers. If your owners are not %100 transparent about where those funds are going - to pay teachers so they can feed their families, you should be paying a considerably reduced amount to cover the schools rent and to keep the lights on.
While it is true that we will still need jobs when this is all over, this has definitely opened my eyes and made me reconsider whom I want to work for when schools do reopen. I have 20 years experience and a master’s degree so I may very well go to a school that cares a bit more for their employees. The employees who stay will likely be the ones who can’t get a teaching position elsewhere.
It’s a lose-lose for teachers and parents.

But you should qualify for the $600 bonus to unemployment bonus. The distribution of the increased unemployment will start between this week and the last week of April and the amount is supposed to be retroactive to your eligibility date (the date you were laid off). Unfortunately there are delays getting the money out and the applications processed due to high volume. Last week, the number of residents of MD who filed for unemployment exceeded the total number of people who filed in 2019. They are trying to get the applications processed as quickly as possible and the money distributed as quickly as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a preschool teacher - yes. Our owners collected tuition for March but laid everyone off in mid-March. They have asked parents to continue paying tuition if they can. So these monies are going straight into the owners’ pockets. They will not get a small business loan. It’s infuriating. Unemployment is 40% of our normal take home pay, which isn’t much to begin with.
Your tuition dollars largely go to support teachers. If your owners are not %100 transparent about where those funds are going - to pay teachers so they can feed their families, you should be paying a considerably reduced amount to cover the schools rent and to keep the lights on.
While it is true that we will still need jobs when this is all over, this has definitely opened my eyes and made me reconsider whom I want to work for when schools do reopen. I have 20 years experience and a master’s degree so I may very well go to a school that cares a bit more for their employees. The employees who stay will likely be the ones who can’t get a teaching position elsewhere.
It’s a lose-lose for teachers and parents.

Or they are being spent on rent, utilities, insurance, etc. That stuff does not stop. Since you seem to think they owe you something, if you find out they are actually losing money, will you pitch in to help them break even?

[Anonymous]

Yes!!!

—- parent and teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a preschool teacher - yes. Our owners collected tuition for March but laid everyone off in mid-March. They have asked parents to continue paying tuition if they can. So these monies are going straight into the owners’ pockets. They will not get a small business loan. It’s infuriating. Unemployment is 40% of our normal take home pay, which isn’t much to begin with.
Your tuition dollars largely go to support teachers. If your owners are not %100 transparent about where those funds are going - to pay teachers so they can feed their families, you should be paying a considerably reduced amount to cover the schools rent and to keep the lights on.
While it is true that we will still need jobs when this is all over, this has definitely opened my eyes and made me reconsider whom I want to work for when schools do reopen. I have 20 years experience and a master’s degree so I may very well go to a school that cares a bit more for their employees. The employees who stay will likely be the ones who can’t get a teaching position elsewhere.
It’s a lose-lose for teachers and parents.

Every school I have worked for has shady administration. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Of course. Agree that administrations, even at the top centers, are SUPER shady. Check their 990 if they're a nonprofit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a preschool teacher - yes. Our owners collected tuition for March but laid everyone off in mid-March. They have asked parents to continue paying tuition if they can. So these monies are going straight into the owners’ pockets. They will not get a small business loan. It’s infuriating. Unemployment is 40% of our normal take home pay, which isn’t much to begin with.
Your tuition dollars largely go to support teachers. If your owners are not %100 transparent about where those funds are going - to pay teachers so they can feed their families, you should be paying a considerably reduced amount to cover the schools rent and to keep the lights on.
While it is true that we will still need jobs when this is all over, this has definitely opened my eyes and made me reconsider whom I want to work for when schools do reopen. I have 20 years experience and a master’s degree so I may very well go to a school that cares a bit more for their employees. The employees who stay will likely be the ones who can’t get a teaching position elsewhere.
It’s a lose-lose for teachers and parents.

Or they are being spent on rent, utilities, insurance, etc. That stuff does not stop. Since you seem to think they owe you something, if you find out they are actually losing money, will you pitch in to help them break even?

You know you are talking to a teacher, right?

[Anonymous]

OF COURSE. Your asking also helps the director to understand that this is a priority to you and something you'd like to see her do. Say that.

[Anonymous]

Yes you should. My children go to a center in the same situation and our director has told us she is continuing to pay the teachers their normal salary, even though they are working less. I am so grateful to be working with them because our teachers are wonderful and I would hate the thought of them being unemployed or potentially losing them all together.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I am paying full price for one kid’s school because they have been clear that staff are being paid in full. My other kid’s center has stopped paying staff so I stopped paying them.

It’s awkward to talk about money but if you are paying full price and the school isn’t paying its largest expense (staff), that’s shady.