Regional School Unit 14 officials and preschool operators from Windham and Raymond met Tuesday evening to discuss a proposed program that, if approved, would open the opportunity for 4-year-olds to attend publicly funded preschool.
Sue Reed, an early childhood consultant to the Maine Department of Education, said a meeting between the school district and private, pre-kindergarten programs is “what the state encourages when the districts are planning (a public pre-K program.)”
Although the school district’s pre-K exploratory committee previously discussed the possibility of providing a full-day program, Kyle Rhoads, principal at Windham Primary School, said they have decided to move forward with a half-day program. The half-day program will allow more students to participate, with 16 children attending the morning session and 16 attending in the afternoon. The exact times of the program are tentative.
The program, if approved, would be housed in a vacant room at Raymond Elementary School. Transportation to the school would be provided with communal stops, Rhoads said. A parent or guardian would drive their child to a nearby location and the child would be brought the rest of the way to the elementary school by bus.
During the next few months, school board members and school officials will be working to design the program and curriculum.
The program, while open to all 4-year-olds in the region, is being designed specifically to help children with developmental disabilities. Each spring, children eligible for preschool in the fall would be screened using a test similar to the kindergarten screening process already in use. The screening involves a series of activities to test the language and motor capabilities of each child.
Another target for the program is to have 70 percent of children attending qualify for free or reduced lunch. This way, “the majority of students attending the program will be from families who may not be able to afford private pre-K,” Rhoads said.
The proposal will be included in the school district’s budget, which will go before the school board and both towns’ voters this spring.
Deb King, co-director at A Child’s World in Windham, said the meeting was helpful in answering her questions about the logistics of the program.
“We were pleased to be invited,” she said. “We’re very strong advocates for public pre-K for all of the community. This will be very beneficial for the children.”
In addition to discussing the pre-K program, attendees shared ideas for how they can work together to ease the transition for children from private preschool into the public school.
One concern for the preschool teachers was explaining the kindergarten screening process to parents whose children attend their day care. Preschool teachers at the meeting said the screenings create anxiety for parents, who worry that their children might not be accepted to kindergarten if they do not perform well. The teachers said they wanted to be able to better explain the screening process to parents to help ease any concerns.
Rhoads said the screening results have no influence on whether a child is actually admitted to kindergarten, and “they’re not pass/fail.”
Reed explained that the results of the test guide whether a child is referred for future evaluation. Often, children are evaluated for speech and language difficulties.
The results of the evaluation are then used in determining the child’s placement in a preschool classroom.
Attendees also discussed combined opportunities for professional development. Pre-K providers in the area may attend professional development opportunities hosted by the district in the future and tour kindergarten classrooms, to help get a better understanding of a child’s transition to the public school.
Deborah Hutchinson, assistant principal at Raymond Elementary School, said Tuesday’s meeting was one of the first opportunities she’s had to discuss the preschool-to-kindergarten transition with area preschool providers.
Raymond Elementary School used to have a preschool coordinator, she said, which helped ease the transition from preschool to kindergarten. The position was ended prior to the schools’ consolidation into RSU 14 in 2008.
“I thought it was a wonderful meeting,” Hutchinson said. “It was very supportive. We’re all working toward the same goal.”
King also felt the meeting was successful.
“We’re very excited about the idea of strengthening the connection between preschool and kindergarten,” she said.
“What happened last night is the ideal,” added Reed. “The district was so open to collaborate. It felt like everybody was on board with the program.”
Windham-Raymond school officials and private preschool providers discuss a proposed public preschool program Tuesday.Send questions/comments to the editors.
