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Coffee County School Board members voted unanimously to postpone a proposed daycare program for district employees during its regular meeting Monday, Sept. 9.

The board will reexamine the matter during its March 2025 meeting with the possibility of implementing the program for the 2025-2026 school-year.

Joahna Sizemore, director of elementary education, shared with board members a proposal for the program during the meeting.

“The plan for the daycare will be run by an onsite manager, this person will report to myself, the director of elementary education, and then the building principal within the building where it is housed,” she said.

Sizemore said the plan was for the program to be housed at New Union Elementary, which was selected because of its central location amongst the county’s elementary schools.

The proposed program would run from 7 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and follow the district’s academic calendar.

“It would be $175 a week for non-potty trained children and $155 a week if they were potty trained and there would be a $50 application fee that would cover up front supplies and things like that for the classroom,” she said.

Director of Schools Dr. Charles Lawson said the initial request for a childcare program for district employees was made by the Coffee Teacher Advisory Council.

“They were the ones who initially requested us to look into this and so we reached out to two programs, we reached out to Tullahoma because they were the closest district with a program and we also visited with Putnam County because they had the longest running program of this type that we had seen,” he said.

According to data shared by Sizemore during the meeting, interest in the program has decreased since she sent an initial survey out to district employees in late February. That initial survey came back showing a possible interest amongst the parents of 43 children. Following another survey conducted in August, that number dropped down to 10.

“When there was anticipation of another school year the interest was much higher, I believe one of the things Ms. Sizemore heard from teachers she contacted was they already had daycare arranged for this year and they hesitated to make a change,” Lawson said.

Board member Jennifer Peacock Hodge said when the idea was discussed during the board spring retreat, she was under the impression the program would be a discounted program compared to other local programs.

Sizemore said that while the proposed rates are cheaper than the average rate for a daycare program in the county, the discount for district employees is calculated in another way.

“The real discount, Dr. Lawson and I had discussed that they will not pay during summer break, they will not pay during long holiday breaks so that is a big discount with the cost because at a local daycare you have to pay to keep your seat,” she said.

Gilley said that if the program were postponed until the spring, that could allow time to create more interest in anticipation of the 2025-2026 school year.

Board member Beth Yentsch said she would like to see a budget before the vote next year.

“If we can get some idea of how many would be interested for next year, what it is going to cost for this director and what it is going to cost for the different employees,” she said. “It would really help to have some concept of what we are looking to agreeing to for the cost of this.”

During the meeting, newly elected and re-elected board members Scott Hansert, Beth Yentsch, Gary Cordell, Robert Gilley and Holly Matthews were sworn-into office by Coffee County Clerk Teresa McFadden.

The next meeting of the Coffee County Schools Board of Education will be October 14.