At its March board meeting on Tuesday, Affton Schools Superintendent Steve Brotherton introduced the district's new director of early childhood education: Karin Fleming.

Fleming was hired a week ago by Special School District to run the planned Affton Early Childhood Education Center, which opens this fall. Her position is basically the equivalent of a building principal for the center.

"This is a great opportunity," Fleming told Patch. "It's wonderful to come to a district where everyone is excited about early childhood education."

Fleming has spent the last ten years working with the Mehlville early childhood program. Before that she worked with First Steps, Missouri's early intervention program for infants and toddlers.

She has a masters degree in speech pathology and another masters in educational administration.

ECE Tuition Adjusted

At Tuesday's meeting the school board also approved adjustments to the ECE center's tuition plan for next year. Specifically the district lowered the rates for students moving to the new center from Affton's current ECE program at the St. George school.

According to Affton business director John Brazeal, the previous tuition plan worked fine for families that could get government subsidies or families with higher incomes and working parents, who could take the program as a tax write-off. But for families with stay at home parents, these options may not work.

So to help "grandfather in" such students that are already enrolled in Affton ECE programs, next year's tuition for students currently attending the St. George school was lowered to $90 per month for 2 half-days per week and $180 per month for 4 half-days per week.