The Red Bank Public School District is getting ready to expand its preschool program with seven additional rooms to accommodate nearly 100 more students next year.
“It is our projection and planning that we will have 348 children in the program. That means that any 3- and 4-year-olds who have registered with us will have a place with us, unlike a year ago when we had to run a lottery because the numbers were just higher than we had anticipated,” Superintendent Dr. Laura Morana said at a meeting with the press April 24.
The program, which currently has 249 children enrolled, is expected to place 348 students next year, including those with special needs. There are currently 17 classrooms dedicated for the preschool program. Next year there will be 23.
Seven additional rooms, including six classrooms and one office, were created at various locations in order to provide the physical capacity needed to house the increased enrollment. The Red Bank Primary School will have four classes, two of which will be integrated for students with special needs. Four classrooms will be at Red Bank Regional High School, three will be at the Monmouth Day Care Center, seven classes at the Community YMCA, and two classes atAcelero Head Start.
Three additional classrooms and one office will also be available at a to-bedetermined Red Bank school site.
“It is one program, it is one system. The children are exposed to the same curriculum and the same opportunities as it relates to field trips and other learning opportunities, including assessment practices so everyone is operating under the same instructional system. They’re simply in different sites,” Morana said.
“We are thrilled to be able to continue our partnership with community organizations.
For us, the partnership with the local providers is what is making this program possible. This continues to serve the children in our town, but yet everyone is part of that system.”
The district currently has 142 files for 3- year-olds and 77 files for 4-year-olds registered for the next school year, but not all of them have complete information.
“We have reviewed the files to ensure that all the necessary registration requirements are in place, and we did find some discrepancies after going on our second round of reviews. Those families received a letter stating that we need to have the missing information by May 1,” Morana said.
According to the superintendent, 34 files had missing information regarding proof of residency, physical examinations or vaccination documents from doctors.
“A great deal of time has been devoted, and we recognize that families did an amazing job of pulling it all together. But there were some children who were not able to come back last year,” Morana said.
“Whatever the outcome, we just want to make sure that the system is fair to all children, to all the families, and to adhere to all of the regulations to begin with.”
The district has a partnership with Princeton University, which uses an electronic system to place the registered students.
“They need all of our data to be able to randomly place the children at the various sites; we don’t do that manually. It creates a balance between boys and girls and demographics,” Morana explained.
Excluded from randomization are children who will be placed in the integrated class with both general education and special needs students, she said.
Princeton is expected to have the children placed in the various classroom locations by the beginning of June when parents will be notified. An orientation is scheduled for later in the summer.
Morana said the program is free and available to all families with 3- and 4-yearolds. The preschool program is partially tied to the district’s free or reduced-cost lunch program because the number of eligible children in the district exceeds 40 percent.
The Red Bank Public School District is currently at 81 percent.
Morana said the increase in preschool enrollment has had somewhat of a domino effect for other grades. Kindergarten, first and third grades are also expected to have an increased number of students and more classrooms next year.
For example, there will be seven kindergarten classes with 21 students per class next year.
The district’s ability to expand is also made possible by financial support from the New Jersey Department of Education, which awarded the public school district a $4 million grant in March.
Still, it remains one of 14 districts to be funded at levels more than 20 percent below what the state considers adequate. Contact Kristen Dalton at [email protected].