Free child care approved for Sarasota County School District employees

Feb. 18--Sarasota County School District employees will now be able to receive free before- and after-school child care at district school locations, according to a decision at a school board workshop in late January.

Nearly six months in the making, the decision came after chief financial officer Mitsi Corcoran was notified last year that a teacher was taking advantage of a school child care program for free, she said. Corcoran thought that the child care could be considered a taxable fringe benefit, so she asked the schools to not provide any child care to district employees free of charge.

In August, the School Board voted to have the district investigate how child care could be provided for staff at no cost. But steps were not formally taken to put this in place until the Jan. 23 workshop, a fact that concerned School Board member Eric Robinson, one of the people behind this move.

"I started harping on them, saying, 'School is half over,' and bringing it up more," he said.

School Board members opted in January to provide free child care to district employees, but only at schools that have programs that are not at capacity and are run through the school as opposed to a third party, such as the YMCA or the Boys and Girls Club, Corcoran said.

She added that the district plans to host webinars for principals at schools with child care facilities, as well as the managers there, so they can better understand how to implement this new policy.

Robinson said he was surprised that Corcoran had considered free child care taxable income since he said it would only be taxable if it cost the district more than $5,000 per employee.

"She argued her point and I argued my point," he said, "and in the end, the teachers won."

___

(c)2018 Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla.

Visit Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla. at www.heraldtribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.