The New Paltz Central School District’s (NPCSD) grant-funded expanded free pre-K program is set to open with four classrooms this fall, and school officials believe they’ve addressed some concerns raised last month that more could have been done to solicit bids from partners within the community.
Superintendent Stephen Gratto, who took the NPCSD leadership reins on January 1 of this year, said an RFP (request for proposal) for community-based organizations to run a pre-K room sent out before his arrival did not yield any qualified local candidates due to their private facilities not being up to the district’s standards for classrooms. This time around, the RFP allowed for organizations to make use of classroom space at Duzine Elementary School, and Gratto said it paid dividends.
“That’s a benefit to the (local) organizations, but it’s also a benefit to us,” Gratto said in an interview with Hudson Valley One. It benefits our students because we can have them in a beautiful building, getting beautiful services and having specials such as our music, library and P.E. So it seemed like a win-win for us.”
On Tuesday, April 18, trustees unanimously approved the acceptance of a proposal from New Windsor-based Healthy Kids Programs to administer the district’s universal pre-K program, a move critics — including some district teachers — of the plan at a May 17 School Board meeting said would be inequitable to students, would not require the use of certified teachers and could hurt local daycare providers.
Last week, Gratto said the district had received an RFP response from a local provider he said seemed likely to be accepted, though he declined to name the organization on the record until officially approved. He said that following concerns raised last month, the district had not only opened an amended RFP, but that he’d visited or spoken to seven different local independent pre-K and daycare providers to discuss the details.
“We were happy that one of the organizations was able to join us,” Gratto said.
School officials also held a pair of information sessions for parents over the last month, with 68 as of press time expressing interest in their children signing up. Jennifer Freer is one of the parents who’ll be sending a student to the district’s pre-K program.
“We’re very excited about it,” she said, adding that her family is already familiar with Duzine as their older son is entering the second grade there this fall. “We’re excited for our little guy to be in a productive environment. Our youngest has been using daycare since I went back to work and he was four months old, and knowing the daycare environment and then moving to a more structured school environment, we just feel like he’s going to be in a better place.”
Freer said the program would be “a nice introduction to the elementary school environment,” particularly as the district has been working on a curriculum designed to align with what students will find as they move into kindergarten and beyond.
“The universal pre-K money comes with a lot of requirements, and one is that they give a curriculum for you to follow, or at least a foundation for a curriculum,” Gratto said. “So we are going to take the curriculum that we used this year in our one pre-K class, and we’re going to try to expand it to the other four classes.”
He added that the curriculum will be the same regardless of who is running each individual pre-K classroom to ensure equity in the quality of service for all students enrolled. Another stipulation of the grant funding is professional development, which Gratto said will be as equitable as possible.
Of the four classrooms, three will either be run by Healthy Kids or the as-yet-unnamed local community partner, while the fourth will be staffed by a NPCSD teacher and teacher’s aid. District teachers will also be involved in the specials, like art, music and library.
While the pre-K program is offered for free, a fee-based before-and-after school option will be available to parents of pre-K students provided by the community-based organization.
Gratto said the meetings with parents showed that the idea of expanding pre-K in the district has been well-received.
“It’s a really big bonus for a lot of people,” he said. “There are people who are happy with their current pre-K situation and we don’t necessarily want to steal them away. But I’m sure many people will be happy with a free option. I’m also sure that there are kids out there who don’t take advantage of pre-K because their families don’t have the money. And those are the kids we really want to help. It’s a great thing for the community.”
Pre-K is available for any student turning four years old by Friday, December 1. A transportation component is also coming together, with those who are four at the start of the school year eligible; Gratto said the district is still trying to navigate the logistics of transporting students who are three at the start of the school year due to the state requirements of a special van for transporting three-year-olds rather than a traditional bus.
“Parents might have to provide transportation until the child turns four,” Gratto said. “We want to provide transportation, but it has to be feasible.”
Gratto urged any parents who might be interested in enrolling their children in the pre-K program to reach out to the district headquarters so school officials can continue their planning.
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