As part of the Jamesville-DeWitt Central School District’s exploration of the feasibility of offering prekindergarten, the district has released a request for proposals for eligible early childhood agencies/organizations to partner with the district to offer a full-day program for four-year-olds.
“As we explore our options on how to best establish and maintain a pre-K program, we want to hear from local organizations that already offer high-quality pre-K programs and who may be interested in partnering with us,” J-D Superintendent Peter Smith said.
The district anticipates launching a program for four-year-olds around Feb. 1, 2022. If it partners with one or more local community-based organizations to house and operate the district program, the term of the contract would be through June 24, 2022, with the option to extend the contract for two additional one-year periods for a total of three years.
The program could be awarded to one or more organizations based on the district’s needs, the total amount of state funding and the total number of students who ultimately enroll in the program. The state funding is anticipated to support operating costs for a maximum of 72 students with class sizes no larger than 18 students per classroom. At this point, it is unclear exactly how many students the district would be able to accommodate, but if there is a higher demand than enrollment slots, the district would utilize a lottery system to place students.
The district could still opt to house and operate a prekindergarten program in one or more of its schools. The district has hired a consultant who is researching enrollment trends and space availability within the district’s three elementary schools.
“Everything is on the table right now,” Smith said. “We are excited about this opportunity to begin building our students’ educational foundations at an earlier age. We look forward to seeing if there are opportunities for us to create new partnerships with the early education providers in our community and enhance existing relationships that are already in place.”
The deadline for organizations to submit a response to the request for proposal is 12 p.m. Aug. 13, 2021.
How will the district pay for pre-K?
The New York state adopted budget includes $388,800 for the district to use toward operating a full-day prekindergarten program in the 2021-22 school year. The state has committed money toward the program for a total of three years via federal funding.
Many districts, including J-D, first learned that state officials allocated the 2021-22 pre-K money when they adopted the state budget in April. Recognizing that there was not enough time to create and launch a quality program by September, and with concerns that the funds would only be available for one year, J-D administrators thought they would have to pass up the funding.
Now, with a guarantee of multi-year funding and the flexibility to begin the program mid-year so there is enough time to develop a quality program, district officials are moving forward with investigating how and when to launch a prekindergarten program.
The timing of the funding complements the district’s 2020-25 Strategic Plan, which calls for the district to determine during the 2021-22 school year the feasibility and appropriateness of implementing a universal pre-K program as part of the district’s efforts to support student achievement.