BEATRICE – The popularity of a program for the youngest learners has a school district looking to hire an additional instructor.

The Beatrice Community Preschool, located in the east wing of the new elementary building, had over 190 third and fourth graders, as of Monday. Elementary Principal and Preschool Coordinator Missy Timmerman says preregistration for the program serving three and four-year-olds just began days ago.

"After day two we were at 163 students registered...after day five, 174...and as if yesterday when I was putting this together, 193." The numbers of the threes and fours are like never seen....92 three-year-olds, 92 four-year-olds and nine five-year-olds."

The Beatrice School Board discussed in committee the possibility of applying for a state early childhood grant program that could pick up part of the cost of adding another instructor.

"The State of Nebraska has a grant for early childhood, which would open up our tenth classroom. When I started this job, we had two. That's really cool to say that we're now opening or we would like to open that tenth classroom."

School Board members and Administrators are supportive of posting the job listing for the new instructor now, to make sure a preschool teacher can be found. Timmerman said, "At this point, what it would look like is that they new classroom would be a three-year-old classroom, because of the huge number of three-year-olds that we have. We also know that when we intervene early, we have good things happen."

School districts receive some state reimbursement for having four-year-olds in a preschool….but not three-year-olds. Superintendent Jason Alexander says the plan would be to apply for the grant program…which covers part of the cost over a two-year period. Current capacity for the Beatrice Community preschool is 102 spots for three-year-olds and 120 for four-year-olds.

Alexander says hiring another preschool teacher would require an examination of budget impact.
"I think we're obligated in the service that we do...which is kids first...that we pursue the grant and that we advertise. Because here's the thing. We may go and search and we may find that it's harder than we thought and we may not get any applicants....or, it may take a while. We're at the front end of teacher hiring season, so we'll know more in a month or two, and we'll keep you posted. We see the direction that we're going and if you're comfortable with the way this is written, then we start to work toward a policy that represents this idea."

A new state law also allows five-year-olds to participate in preschool, if the child does not turn six before January 1st. But that decision is left up to school districts and accepting five-year-olds would be based on whether there are openings. The preschool’s priority is first to serve kids within the district’s boundaries.
Timmerman says the district has had a large waiting list every year, for preschool spots.