Schools await word about money

Danette Goulet

WESTSIDE -- Six Westside elementary school communities will have their

collective fingers crossed until June.

That is when they will hear if the state has agreed to pay for

additional preschool programs in their neighborhoods like an extremely

successful one at Whittier Elementary.

“It’s a major piece for language proficiency and for early

intervention,” said Julie McCormick, principal at Pomona Elementary

School, one of the two schools hoping to get a preschool on their campus.

“It’s going to be a big assistance.”

The Newport-Mesa Unified School Board granted program coordinators

permission last Tuesday to apply for a major expansion grant, which will

be handed out June 30.

Administrators have applied for funding from the state to open two

satellite preschools, each with 48 children, at Wilson and Pomona

elementary schools and a third at the Harper school site with 144

children.

Gladys Green, who runs the state preschool at Whittier and would

oversee the new facilities, said she hopes to have the two smaller sites

up and running in the fall if she gets the go-ahead from the state.

The Harper site, which would serve preschoolers from the College Park,

Sonora, Paularino and Woodland (formerly Kaiser Primary) elementary

school zones, as well as special education students, is set to open in

the middle of the next school year if all goes well.

The Whittier preschool program, which expanded last year from one

classroom to two and has a third waiting for a new building to be

completed, is funded by the state, Green said.

The state pays $16.98 a day per student, she added.

The schooling is free for students, but acceptance into the program is

based on gross family income and family size, she said.

To be eligible for the program, students must live in the Newport-Mesa

area and be between 3 and 5 years old.

The rest depends on the parents. They must volunteer in the classroom

at least once a month and are strongly encouraged to take adult education

classes.

The first children accepted are those referred by Child Protective

Services.

When asking for board approval to expand the program last week, Green

shared with trustees and district staff some of the current programs’

successes.

Among these were findings of significant gains in various language

scores.

“It had a major impact,” Green said. “It prepared kids for

kindergarten, brought parents into the education system. We were able to

identify kids who were not ready for kindergarten. Kids who have

preschool experience are ready to sit down and listen and are used to a

school routine.”

Bringing this program to Wilson and Pomona also would mean an end to

the preschool programs already in place at those sites, but it is a

superior program, said Lisa Overholt Dillon, the district program

improvement coordinator.

“[Those] preschools, which have no more than 17 students in a class

... do not have the higher requirements for teachers that the state

preschool does,” she said.

Those students would be served by the new preschool, Dillon added.