Breckenridge, Frisco town governments partner on child care assistance program

Editor’s observe: This tale has been updated to appropriate and clarify information about Frisco’s tuition-help plan.

A new agreement will make it possible for Breckenridge city authorities employees to help Frisco function its new little one care tuition-assistance program.

Breckenridge City Council unanimously voted to approve a resolution, which establishes an intergovernmental agreement concerning the two cities, at its assembly Tuesday, Feb. 22. The settlement will aid Frisco launch its personal edition of Breckenridge’s little one care tuition-help plan by March 1, explained Corrie Burr, housing method manager with Breckenridge’s child treatment and neighborhood enhancement division.

In January, Frisco Town Council authorised the system just after hearing from local community users that kid care has come to be an highly-priced burden on family members. Both of those packages established aside a part of town money to assist go over the prices of tuition for families that make considerably less than 150% of the location median income.

People family members are needed to invest only 13% to 16% of their profits on little one care. In January, the Breckenridge Town Council quickly minimized that fee to 10% to 13% to support people afflicted by frequent COVID-19 quarantines.

The packages have unique location skills. For a spouse and children to use the Frisco plan, they ought to are living or get the job done in the Tenmile Basin — which incorporates Frisco and Copper Mountain — in accordance to the towns’ settlement. The Breckenridge plan is open up to anyone living or performing in Breckenridge.

The Frisco software is also open up to preschool programs operated by the Summit University District and for-gain household baby care enterprises. The Breckenridge method is only supplied to families who attend licensed nonprofit little one care facilities.

Underneath the agreement, town of Breckenridge workers associates will acquire and critique programs for the system in Frisco, but Frisco personnel will be the principal position of make contact with for households. The city of Frisco will spend a $250 fee per software evaluation executed by Breckenridge workers.

Burr stated the Frisco city govt was eager to get started off as quickly as attainable.

“We felt it was the correct point to be ready to perform jointly on a system mainly because they did want to keep it just the similar,” Burr said.

Frisco is also spending Breckenridge $750 to modify its current software on Study Monkey to reflect the plan in Frisco. The cities agreed that charges paid out to Breckenridge will not exceed $20,000.

At its Jan. 11 meeting, the Frisco City Council agreed to devote $349,452 to the plan. The funds is in addition to the $65,000 that the town gives to Summit County Preschool.

Breckenridge budgeted $869,499 for the assistance program and other kid treatment aid in 2022. In 2020, the program served 149 Breckenridge families, which every single saved an average of $495 a month, in accordance to the town’s 2022 funds.

Although supportive of Frisco’s efforts to set up its have tuition-support method, some Breckenridge council associates expressed worries that the agreement will set even further pressure on the town’s staff members.

“I’m seriously psyched that we can get our system expanded,” Owens said to Burr. “… But I also just know how fast paced you guys are, so I hope that it has been reviewed that at a workers stage this is probably not a long-term remedy.”

The agreement will be revisited each 12 months with the plan that it is a short term option, Burr explained.

Burr said town personnel hopes the arrangement will even more efforts to create a countywide tuition-help software. Breckenridge, Silverthorne, Dillon and Frisco have been exploring the probability of a plan in partnership with the Summit County authorities.

“We felt like it was a person action nearer to that to have both (Upper Blue and Tenmile) basins working on the identical method as we go to ideally a bigger system throughout the county,” she stated.