Pre-school students head into classroom
Scores of preschool children throughout Fayette County finally will be headed into the classroom within days thanks to the long-awaited passage of the state budget. Rene Despot, project supervisor for the Fayette County Pre-K Counts program, which is administered through the Private Industry Council of Westmoreland-Fayette (PIC), confirmed Friday that 143 Pre-K Counts slots will be filled at eight sites throughout Fayette County.
“We’re starting Tuesday,” Despot said.
The county also has an additional 55 Head Start slots that also have been on hold pending the state budget’s passage.
Sandra K. Hall, head of the Pre-K Counts and Head Start programs, was unavailable Friday to say exactly when the Head Start program would begin.
Gov. Ed Rendell signed the state budget on Oct. 9, which was 101 days after the fiscal year began. The programs were originally slated to begin when the school year started at the end of August but were put on hold pending resolution of the state budget.
The long wait for classes has meant that some of the teachers in the two programs have taken other positions. Despot said work is under way to hire new teachers, but until that happens qualified staff will be available at all the sites.
And just like some of the teachers who have moved on in the nine weeks since school started, Despot said some of the children who were enrolled in the Pre-K Counts programs have opted to participate in other programs. She said in “certain spots” of the county parents already have made other arrangements for their children, saying the children are comfortable where they are in other programs.
“We did lose some, but we had a waiting list,” Despot said.
A separate program is run by the Frazier School District. A total of 45 children began that program at the end of August when the public schools opened.
The Pre-K Counts program began in 2007 throughout Pennsylvania. The agenda fits the routine of a regular school day and follows the school calendar, being held five days a week and running from the morning to the afternoon. It is free to middle-income families whose earnings are above the income guidelines to enroll their child in Head Start.
Parents or guardians are responsible to transporting the children to and from the sites.
Families of children in the Pre-K Counts program must fall within the 300 percent of poverty guidelines, which is about $66,000 for a family of four.
Hall previously said studies of children that have completed the program shows it works for school readiness.
Plans for 70 to 90 additional Pre-K Counts slots for Fayette County did not come to fruition this year as the budget provided the same funding as last year.
The locations for the Pre-K Counts programs include Denise K. Kooser’s Group Day Care Home on Hatfield Lane and the Little Kid Zone on Connellsville Street in Uniontown; Rebecca Belski’s Duck Hollow Discovery Learning Center and the Cub’s Den at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus; Lafayette and Wharton schools in the Uniontown Area School District; and Masontown and D. Ferd Swaney elementary schools in the Albert Gallatin Area School District.
The Head Start locations are in North Union Township at the PIC building on River Avenue in Masontown and in Republic.
Despot said while the programs are kept at capacity, applications are always accepted at the Private Industry Council in the event openings become available.