School system begins new pre-K plan
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The county has two of the 300 such programs being conducted across the state. One will be held at West Elementary and the other at Eastside, according to director of instruction Bobby Cox.
Classes will be for 4-year-olds and, per state requirements, will have a maximum of 20 students each with a teacher and an aide. Counties had a choice on whether to participate in the program, according to professional and community development coordinator Bonnie Collier.
“It was voluntary,” Collier said. “You had to work on a grant and submit it.”
Linda Langham wrote the grant for Warren County which brought in a little over $162,000 in funding from the state.
Currently the program is aimed at a specific segment of the community.
“What it’s designed to do is serve at-risk students,” Cox said, noting the classes are set up like any other class in the system. “It’s standards based, just like everything else. It leads in to them transitioning into kindergarten at age 5.”
Since class space is limited, there is a screening process for children to register in the classes. Parents are asked to call their child’s school, West or Eastside, to get an appointment for the screening. The first screening will be held Thursday, Sept. 1 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Family Resource Center behind Warren County Middle School. There will be a make-up day Friday, Sept. 2 from 8 a.m. to noon.
Any student can be set up for a screening, but priority will be given to students who live in the zones of those two schools because of transportation issues. Cox also pointed out the program is specifically designed for economically disadvantaged, at-risk students.
Parents need to bring a birth certificate, Social Security number, and immunization records. After the screenings parents will be required to fill out various registration forms. Once completed, school system officials will go through the criteria in the grants to determine who is eligible to be in the classes.
In addition to the two pre-K classes, there will be two other early education classes in the county, a special education class at Hickory Creek, and a program called Even Start, a unique concept which will allow parents in adult education classes to interact with their own children in parallel pre-K classes, according to Even Start director Laura Miner.
No location has been selected for the Even Start classes yet. These two programs are federally funded.
Cox said the pre-K classes will serve several functions.
“It will be acclimating students to school and that environment,” Cox said, “and trying to get them ready to enter kindergarten on the proper level.”
According to Cox, Collier and Miner, the benefits of a program of this type will show up later on in a student’s school career.
“I don’t think you can put a value on how important early education is,” Cox said. “In any study that I have read, in any education journal, they always mention that student readiness is the top priority in their success. If they’re ready to learn when they go into kindergarten, then they will be successful. They will not only be successful academically, but they’re more likely to graduate. I think for every dollar we put into pre-K, you receive like $17 on the back-end as far as the community goes.
“You can put more than just an educational value on it,” Cox added. “It’s really a community value.”