Pyramids Administration met with
NYSED representatives Thursday June 5
th to learn that Pyramids will be able to
re-submit for
insufficient funding for preschool special education services. This news will allow Pyramids to move forward with a restructuring of the debt. This is very good news to the families served by Pyramids and the employees who value and appreciate their employment.
These revisions come at a cost. It is the regional counties served by Pyramids that are mandated to absorb these costs. Therefore, some of the questions that are worth addressing with today's blog are as follows:
How has debt been created in the amount of 800,000 over 4 years?Each year, since 2004, in order to cover all the costs of operating the mandated preschool special education programs, Pyramids required an additional 7% of revenue annually to stay in the black.
Why are these programs so expensive?A preschool special education classroom ranges in cost between 150,000 to 250,000 per year in actual cost depending on the nature of the needs of the children serviced by that classroom. The more therapies necessary the more the cost of the classroom. No surprise to anyone the increased cost of health insurance and employee benefits and general operating expenses also increases the cost. But another very important point worth mentioning is the reduction of revenues to share overhead costs.
As any good business person knows, shared overhead costs for a facility, materials, equipment, and administration costs, spread out over more programs, reduces the cost to anyone program. This is a significant point to be made in Clinton County and one that deserves to be understood by the voting community.
When the facility, Pyramids in
Morrisonville was opened, 2002, the business plan was a good one. Under one facility, marry child care with preschool special education programming, and allow other programs, such as early intervention revenues and preschool home service revenues, share the cost of overhead and administration costs.
What happened then?In 2004, the local legislators, voted to create two new agencies in Clinton County doing the same work for early intervention and home preschool services using employees at the time currently working for
Pyramids and with clients currently serviced by Pyramids. Since 2004, the revenues for these other programs, to help off-set overhead and
administration costs, has been reduced by 70%. Essentially transferred to start up agencies to do the same kind of work.
Who then needs to take responsibility for the deficit created to operate the mandated preschool special education preschool programs? No one person but rather a collective group. A group of legislators whom voted to collectively dismantle programs to Pyramids that were acting to off-set overhead costs, to keep the costs of operating the mandated preschool special programs from running a deficit or at the very least a deficit that would not result in a forced Chapter 11.
Why did they do this?Depending on who you speak to, legislators, county officials, the county attorney, Assemblywoman Janet
Duprey, you will hear a different answer. Yet, collectively there has been one single mission since 2004, to distort the truth. What tactics and measures have the responsible parties willingly engaged in to distort the truth? Although nothing surprises me any longer, it may help the reader to explain why I relocated my
family. Regardless of the reason, the vote, .. an unprecendedted phone vote .. by the legislators in 2004, to dismantle revenues, has the fiscal result of higher regional costs to educate the preschool child with a disability.
In closing, this is a good day for the Pyramids team. There is relief and a sense that all the work to bring parents and employees together to unite with a single voice stating emphatically they want their school to survive, their programs to remain in tact, has paid off.
There is more work to be done. Private
donations will continue to be a focus to finish the debt entirely. Our fiscal reports for 06-07 are being completed with the help of our Albany based consultant and finally, the state audit report, with all its flaws and misrepresentations is being formally disputed.
A very big thank you to the readers of this blog who continue to show their support and the increasing amount of individuals who desire to be informed and not mislead by a selected few.
To
receive a copy of FAQ's please email
drrecore@pyramidspreschool.orgAll prospective donors, please call 518-562-3847 and ask to speak to Vivian
Reiner, Melissa
Dorsett-
Felicelli, Karen
Hachigian, Margi Carter or Valerie Bragg.
Melissa will be happy to discuss the issues
concerning the audit. She may be contacted at
mdfelicelli@pyramidspreschool.org or 518-593-8945.
A day at the Clinton County Fair Grounds. The Clinton County Sheriff's Department assisted with a safe crossing for children ages 3-5. A fun and educational day for all. 
Pyramids Administration met with NYSED representatives Thursday June 5th to learn that Pyramids will be able to re-submit for insufficient funding for preschool special education services. This news will allow Pyramids to move forward with a restructuring of the debt. This is very good news to the families served by Pyramids and the employees who value and appreciate their employment.
It has been about ten days since this blog was first created. It's intention, to correct any and all misperceptions about Pyramids Child Development Center initiated by a select few with hidden agendas.
Today's entry is about honoring the staff of Pyramids Child Development Center for their dedication and loyalty to the children and families they serve, especially during the five week period that started in November, when they worked without pay after CNB froze the PCDC accounts. Since then, they have yet be be paid their 11/15 payroll. This is also an entry to recognize the parents and supportive families that came through to help with small cash donations, food donations and just general emotional support.
What makes Pyramids Child Development Center special? As with any organization, it is the caring and dedicated staff that show up each day with enthusiasm and creativity to serve the young child with special needs and to care for the children in our child care programs. The children, of course, make everything special for everyone just by being children. The facility is as unique as it is impressive. Moreover, the families we serve are supporters and believers in the work we do and the philosophies we uphold. One might imagine after four years of unpredictable attacks, directed at me, that the organization would crumble, piece by piece. Yet, surprisingly, this has not happened. For every attack, subtle, or blatant, there is a bubble of panic, a public reaction, and then, a slow return to normal. What, then, is normal? Normal is a day when teachers, therapists, assistants, aides, child care providers, help a three year old autistic child speak their first word for the first time, assist a physically handicap child with their first step or first crawl or a reassure a first time mother that her infant, will be loved and cared for each day while she attends to her work.
It would seem in an effort to save a school and to provide exceptional quality to children with handicapping conditions, Pyramids Child Development Center would have the support of their local government and by extension the state. With a 3.2 million annual budget, a 104 employees, 70% receiving full benefits and a 180 children serviced on and off site via our main campus, satellite sites and home services, NY state is getting a lot of bang for their buck.
