MCDC Fee Updates/Changes

MCDC Membership,

Good afternoon!

The Board reviewed our existing fee schedule over the last few weeks and made a few changes to identify areas to increase revenue for MCDC without raising the cost of tuition.

Waitlist Fee. Increased from $25 to $100 effective 1 August 2022. MCDC has long charged $25 for new families to apply for our waitlist. Current families do not need to pay to add a child to the waitlist. We surveyed both other NASA and Huntsville daycares, and found most are charging at least $50, with Ardent charging $200 and Heritage $250. This change will not impact current families and will raise thousands more annually for our center.

Annual Membership Fee. Increased to $100 for all families effective 1 August 2022. Previously, current families were charged $75 while waitlist families were charge a pro-rated fee based on when they joined the waitlist. To simplify our fee structure while increasing revenue, all families will be charged $100 during our annual re-enrollment period.

Annual Administrative Fee. Increased to $50 per child for all enrolled children effective 1 August 2022. Previously known as a registration fee, all enrolled children were charged $35.

Delayed Enrollment Fee. We also made a big change to our enrollment process. When the registrar offers a family an open spot at MCDC, previously families were allowed to delay enrollment up to 2 weeks without being charged tuition to hold the spot. This meant MCDC could be without revenue for that timeframe. Effective 8 July 2022, families wishing to accept a spot at MCDC are required to begin paying tuition on the offered date to secure the spot. This small process change will ensure MCDC doesn’t lose up to $500 per child.

We know we’re sending a lot of financial updates over the last few weeks. As a Board we are also drafting updates to MCDC’s bylaws and policies and developing an updated fundraising plan among a host of other items! We know that to balance low tuition with competitive salaries in this era of high inflation we need to review our limited revenue sources so that has been one of our top priorities as we get closer to the fall when we prepare our annual budget.

Please let us know if you have any questions!

MCDC Board of Directors