Concern Over Perceived Lack of Herricks Universal Pre-K Info

Even in the Information Age, some facts are harder to come by than others. One Herricks resident recently made inquires about the district’s , coming to a meeting of the board of education at the on April 17, stating that she was seeking information about the program, specifically and overview, the curriculum and state mandate. 

“It’s really not a Herricks program, it’s a state program,” Herricks Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction Dr. Deirdre Hayes, who is in charge of the universal pre-k program, said, noting that the information is found on the state website. “What we do is the state has offered the district a certain amount of money, they allocate the number of students that we are allowed to have to a grade, they set up the regulations for how the program needs to be run by the curriculum. What we have done is we have signed an agreement after putting out a RFP with Harbor Day so they actually run the program for us.”

Since 2007 Herricks has received a grant from the state allowing 55 children from the district to attend the program. The district does not run the program directly, and no money from the Herricks school budget is directed at the program. The grant is in the amount of $148,500 and comes out to $2,400 per student.

If a child is 4 years of age by Dec. 1, 2012, they may register for the program. However, if more than 55 children register, a public lottery will be held to determine which children are admitted.  Every name is pulled and numbered as per State rules, and those not chosen immediately are wait-listed.  Should a parent opt not to use the district’s program, instead choosing a private pre-k program, the next-highest name on the list is offered the open spot.

The program is strictly a half-day program, transportation is not provided and parents cannot choose whether their child will attend the morning or afternoon session “so for working parents who require a full day program or who need transportation or for parents who say ‘I only need the morning,’ the program doesn’t necessarily work for them,” Dr. Hayes said, adding that those rules are also part of the state regulations.

According to Dr. Hayes the district data farms through its registry of residents with children of appropriate age for the program, sending out notices about the program, as well as putting applications in the school buildings and on the district website.

“It’s always hard to reach every single person. We do our best and we hope everyone else will help us with this; we really do try to think of every way we can to reach people,” she said.

“There are however, people who register their kids for kindergarten the first day of school,” Superintendent Dr. John Bierwirth said. “And in that case there’s no penalty for that, in this case because there are a limited number of spots, there is a penalty. It’s not universal.”

When informed of the lottery system the resident stated that the selection process “almost it sounds like its discriminatory,” and making an accusation that more residents should know about the program.

“Most of the people do know,” Dr. Bierwirth said. “We feel badly about the people who one way or another didn’t know about it but the vast majority of people do know about it. The big problem for many people is the commitment dates for private programs are earlier than we know if we’re going to get any money from the state to do it.”