Gainesboro Elementary Adds New Pre-K Class

Gainesboro Elementary has added a new pre-K class to allow for more of its youngest students to attend the school.

Special Education Supervisor Todd Clinton said the addition was made possible by an Access for All Learning Network Grant. Clinton said the state has provided the system with coaches to aid the district’s pre-K program as a whole and identify students that need pre-K education.

“We’ll use the same curriculum that we use in the other programs,” Clinton said. “We have a teacher and a para in the classroom. But no, we want them to look identical and that’s kind of the purpose of this. So this grant will work in all four programs, this one just happens to be a new class and we have those new seats.”

Clinton said the new class has the space to support twenty additional students. He said these classes are an important form of early intervention designed to prepare students for public school as they grow.

“The sooner that we can get in, build a relationship with the families, build a relationship with the kids, you know, that just helps when they go into kindergarten,” Clinton said.

Clinton said the grant will last three to five years to further support the district’s pre-K program over time. Clinton said they asked parents if they were interested in the additional program during the annual early childhood roundup last spring.

“We didn’t know if we’ve have it last spring and so the parents that checked that they (were) interested, we contacted them back and asked them, you know, that it was a go and they said, ‘Yeah, we’d be interested in our kids being in there,'” Clinton said. “So that’s how it started.”