Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
A matter regarding new software for the operation of Palouse Little Sprouts daycare by a non-profit group was tabled until the next meeting by the Palouse school board.
In a meeting Oct. 27, Jens Hegg, president of the non-profit, appealed to the board for completion of a software purchase as agreed to last May.
The daycare center is now operated by the school. It had been set to be taken over as a non-profit Oct. 1. Due to a licensing delay, the change-over date has been moved back to Jan. 1.
Meanwhile, as the transition has approached, part of the original agreement was that the school district would buy a software for the non-profit group to run the daycare with.
The software, ProCare, is made for daycare centers, and allows them to save an employee’s salary to run budgeting, payroll and tuition calculations.
Since the May agreement, the school board has bought the software, or part of it. Hegg says what was purchased was all but three modules of the software. The three missing ones include the payroll and budgeting portion.
The cost was $1,190. To complete the package, the board would need to pay another $797. That would bring the purchase amount up to the $1,987 cost originally anticipated.
“It was a good faith decision that they made,” said Hegg. “As an independent entity, we couldn’t afford to have an employee for this. In effect, we’re being asked to fix the business that they couldn’t fix.” “We’re still talking about it,” said Palouse superintendent Bev Fox. “I think there’s a whole lot more conversation to be had. We’re working it out.”
The school operated the daycare for seven years. The subject will be on the agenda for the next school board meeting. It will be Nov. 17 at Garfield Middle School at 7:15 p.m.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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