Skip to main content

Grant expands preschool learning opportunities

Lead Summary
, , , ,
By
Mavis Fodness

Approval of a recent Early Learning Scholarship will expand and improve early childhood learning opportunities in the Luverne School District.
The $37,500 scholarship through the Minnesota Department of Education expands the School Readiness and Discovery Time programs.
Some of the new services will begin as early as next month and others will be implemented for Fall 2016 classes.
“It is really awesome,” said Karen Willers, Luverne Community Education director. “The grant meets one of our goals to increase options for families to best meet the needs of individual students.”
Originally Willers’ grant proposal requested $70,000, with the district receiving a little more than half of the request last month.
“It was the most that anyone got,” she said. “Only one out of every four proposals was funded.”
Last week, Willers and her staff decided how the grant’s original proposals would be implemented with the reduced funds.
The first change is to add days and weeks to the programming calendar.
School Readiness was able to offer a sliding-fee scale to qualifying families. Under the grant, the sliding-fee option will continue as classes expand from two to three days a week. Classes will also be offered three weeks longer than its current schedule.
The tuition-based Discovery Time will continue with choices of either two- or three-day-per-week sessions. The change brings both to 36 weeks each school year.
Under the grant, local families may now apply for tuition scholarships for both programs.
This option previously wasn’t offered for Discovery Time families, who paid the entire tuition cost, which is currently $1,035 per year for the three-day-per-week program.
The scholarships are based on family finances as well as the learning needs of the child(ren).
As a result of the grant, the programs targeting 3- to 5-year-olds will likely be renamed, Willers said, since both programs now offer the same curriculum and tuition assistance. She said she is leaning toward Discovery Time, since that program has been in existence the longest.
Both School Readiness and Discovery Time have been conducted in Luverne for more than two decades.
Currently, 122 children participate in pre-K classes. The grant now allows that enrollment to serve an additional 20 students.
The expansion is absorbed into current teaching staff schedules with only the hiring of an additional paraprofessional for the 3-year-old program.
The grant comes on the heels of funding increases to the pre-K education program after the state legislature’s special session in the spring of 2015.
For Luverne that meant School Readiness funding nearly doubled from $15,000 to $28,000. Classes were able to expand from one day per week to two. The increased funding is expected from the state again for 2017, Willers said.
Besides adding to the number of classes available, the grant monies will also assist in the transportation of students to and from the classes conducted at the Luverne Public School campus.
These transportation details are still being worked out, but district transportation and Heartland Express are being considered in the expanded budget.
Current 0- to 2-year-old early childhood offerings will not be affected by the expanded programming for 3- to 5-year-olds.
Willers said she still sees a need in the local community for faith-based pre-school classes as well as those provided by the federally funded Head Start program.
“They all offer things to meet the needs of families,” she said. “And we definitely want to continue working together with these programs to meet those needs.”
Parents interested in Early Learning Scholarships for the 2016-17 enrollment should contact Luverne Community Education, 283-4724, beginning in March 2016.

You must log in to continue reading. Log in or subscribe today.