NEWARK– The school system will accept a grant to expand prekindergarten despite concerns from the Worcester County Commissioners.
Worcester County Public Schools (WCPS) officials said this week the school system would accept a $600,000 Pre-K expansion grant. The decision comes after the commissioners declined to offer concurrence regarding the Pre-K3 funding.
“We certainly appreciate the commissioners’ careful consideration of this matter, and at this time, school system leadership has decided it is in the best interest of the students in our Title I schools to accept the grant for this year with the express knowledge that at the conclusion of the grant year, we will either end the program or repurpose positions through attrition to sustain these programs,” said Carrie Sterrs, the school system’s coordinator of public relations and special programs. “We also hope should the county’s financial position improve over the course of the next year that the commissioners may reconsider supporting this program.”
Last week, the commissioners reviewed a request for concurrence regarding the school system’s plan to use a $600,000 grant to expand Pre-K3 at Buckingham Elementary School, Snow Hill Elementary School and Pocomoke Elementary School. Officials told the commissioners the funding would add an additional Pre-K3 classroom at each of those schools, as it would provide salaries for seven staff members as well as the furniture, supplies, curriculum and technology needed for one year. The school system is pushing prekindergarten to ensure local children are ready for kindergarten.
None of the commissioners last Tuesday made a motion to support the school system’s acceptance of the grant. Commissioner Chip Bertino noted that it was the first time he could remember the school system providing grant information.
“I want to say that is the first time I can remember for a program like that the board of education approached the commissioners letting us know something like this was what they were considering,” Bertino said last week. “There was no concurrence from the commissioners. For myself I will say that I don’t know what we’re on the hook for with other programs in regards to ESSER grants that have been accumulated by the board of education.”
Bertino said taxpayers needed to be aware of the fact that once the grant funding was gone, the additional $600,000 would become part of the school system’s operating budget.
“I do recognize that we didn’t provide concurrence which I certainly agree with but we do need to be working together on these sorts of things so the taxpayers know exactly where their dollars are going,” he said last week.
While county officials are still reviewing the information the school system provided them regarding the millions in ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds WCPS received and what those funds are being used for, school system leadership confirmed this week that the Pre-K3 expansion was moving forward. Sterrs said WCPS had already received the grant.
“School system leadership felt it was prudent to formally seek concurrence from the commissioners on the potential to sustain the program beyond the grant, as it would provide a clearer picture in determining the best course of action for the program moving forward,” Sterrs said.
According to Dee Shorts, chief academic officer for grades Pre-K3 through eight, there are waitlists for Pre-K3. With the expansion grant, Buckingham, Snow Hill and Pocomoke will each be able to accept 40 3-year-olds, rather than the 20 they’d have been able to take with just one Pre-K3 classroom.
“We’re really trying to get in our priority students, which is why the Title 1 schools were so important,” Shorts said, adding that while in-home childcare worked for some kids, others needed the structure school provided. “Some of the kids need more.”
She said parents appreciated the opportunities offered to students through Pre-K3 and that students in the program had access to services and resources they needed. With the extra classroom, she said each of the schools would be able to take 40 3-year-olds. There are 50 signed up at Buckingham, 48 signed up at Pocomoke Elementary and 38 signed up in Snow Hill. Parents were advised the schools would be establishing rosters by June 30.
“There’s a great need,” Shorts said.
She said that as WCPS had implemented Pre-K3 in all of its schools, officials had seen the benefits of the program.
“We’re getting great results,” she said. “Our kids are flourishing in these programs. A lot of kids need these programs.”
Shorts said that while WCPS leaders “absolutely wanted to hear from” the commissioners regarding the expansion grant, in the end they’d decided not to decline the grant funding.
“We just felt we wanted to move forward and it was what we needed to do for these kids,” she said.
Shorts said if the school system needed funding for the program in the future and the commissioners felt it wasn’t sustainable, education officials would look at attrition.