The Jamesville-DeWitt Central School District is in the final stages of preparing to welcome its inaugural class of prekindergarten, which will begin Jan. 31. Each of the district’s three elementary schools will have one pre-K classroom of no more than 18 four-year-old students. The Rothschild Early Childhood Center is partnering with J-D to house one additional pre-K classroom that could include up to 10 J-D students who have already been attending that program.
The New York state adopted budget included $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. 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.
“We are excited to be able to offer this program for our families and to meet the timeline in our Strategic Plan for this initiative, and really exceed our expectations for program implementation,” Superintendent Peter Smith said. “We recognize the importance of early childhood education as a building block to a strong educational foundation and look forward to welcoming our youngest Red Rams into our school community.”
Families with children who were four years old on or before Dec. 1, 2021, were eligible to submit a letter of interest to the district. More than 64 possible student placements were initially submitted but because some of those students were not eligible, the district ultimately had enough slots to accommodate all eligible students whose families submitted letters of interest.
The district will follow the same procedure for future school years, with families able to submit a letter of interest, which for the 2022-23 school year will be available on the district website later this spring.
In developing the J-D program, administrators visited several local pre-K programs to learn from their experiences. Those visits were instrumental in helping the district select a curriculum, purchase classroom supplies and materials and develop a daily schedule.
“There are a number of successful programs in the area, and we wanted to learn from them what works well and what doesn’t,” Smith said. “We are grateful to our colleagues who welcomed us into their schools and shared their expertise with us- it was invaluable.”