Additional White County Pre-K to Receive Funding

White County Pre-K will receive additional funding from the Voluntary Pre-K program in the 2019-2020 school year.

Supervisor of Elementary Instruction Angela Fresh said the program will give funds to an additional Pre-K classroom.

“So we have been over the past two or three years at 100 percent utilization,” Fresh said. “And so I was able to ask for a fifth Pre-K for this next year in order to be able to serve more Pre-K students in our county.”

Out of the seven Pre-K classrooms in the county, four currently use Voluntary Pre-K funding.  Fresh said White County has not decided which classroom will receive the funding.

“We are still in the process of going through all the applications and making sure we have all the paperwork,” Fresh said. “So it will be where the need is at.”

Fresh said the Pre-K Quality Act holds the classroom to high standards.

“You know when you think about program management, you are thinking about the structure of your program that people are licensed teachers. Which all of ours are,” Fresh said. “And we meet that teacher to child ratio with also having an aid, a Powerpro that is in the classroom with the teacher so we meet that 1 to 10 ratio.”

The classroom must also use a quality curriculum, have consistent positive student-teacher interactions and maximize enrollment with family outreach.

“It’s just a great program and you know especially for children if they can get in and get those early skills,” Fresh said. “It really helps them get a really good headstart going into kindergarten the following year and we have really seen that over the past couple of years.”

Bondecroft, Woodland Park, Doyle, and Castle Elementary Schools received federal funding in the 2018-2019 school year.

White County is one of several to receive Pre-K federal funding, including Overton, Putnam, and Pickett counties.