BECKLEY — The West Virginia Department of Education cites three states that currently offer “pre-school for all,” Florida, Georgia and Oklahoma. Over the next five years, West Virginia, New York and Illinois are slated to join them in offering universal pre-kindergarten schooling for 4-year-olds.

With nearly $120 million of state, federal and local funds spent on the West Virginia universal pre-k program last year, the state appears to be on target with its enrollment goal. When the legislation passed in 2002, the state hoped that universal pre-k would be available to all 4-year-olds by the 2012-13 school year.

Assistant superintendent Janet Lilly says Raleigh County is also on target in implementing the universal pre-k program.

“This year we have been lucky to accommodate everyone who has wanted a slot. Currently there is some kind of pre-k program offered in all 19 of the elementary schools.”

As the county developed the program, it targeted Title I schools, which have a concentration of low-income students and receive additional funds, to become full-day pre-k programs first. She explained that the county first implemented as many half-day programs as it could, and as more funding became available from the state and federal government, many programs became full-day.

Raleigh County tries to accommodate parents as much as possible, Lilly said.

“In some cases, children attend pre-k at a school that is not their home school, but our goal is to find openings for all those who want to attend; around 95 percent of the pre-k students are in their home schools.

“At times a parent may find it easier to have their child attend a pre-k that is close to their work; we try to place children where it works best for the family as much as possible,” she maintained.

Another way Raleigh County is able to assist parents, she said, is to offer transportation for the pre-schoolers, although it is not a state requirement. Students who attend a full-day program can ride the bus alongside the grade schoolers. If a student attends a half-day program, there is the opportunity for partial transportation, either riding the regular bus in the morning or the evening, depending on their half-day program.

The county also supports other pre-school programs like Head Start and Happy Kids at the YMCA.

“We provide funds for supplies and materials, and sometimes teachers; our goal is to have as many 4-year-olds in pre-school as possible.

“The State of West Virginia now considers pre-k the point of entry for the school system and research shows that the more hours a day children spend in pre-p, the more success they have,” Lilly said.

Raleigh County has forged ahead to ensure that the West Virginia Universal pre-k program is implemented quickly and in a way that benefits the families in the community.

At Crescent Elementary, pre-k teacher Mary Beth Garcia and classroom aide Melissa Toney maintain a full-day program of 20 students for the Title I school.

Garcia, who has been teaching for eight years, five in Raleigh, said that “pre-k is the foundation to learning. This is a time in their lives when they want to go to school and it is important for them to learn through play and learn social skills.”

She said the program works to prepare students for kindergarten by practicing writing, vocabulary and letter/number recognition.

“It is wonderful to have this offered in public schools so that children can have the type learning through play that doesn’t happen when kindergarten is heavily focused on reading and math,” Garcia continued.

“Parents may believe that 4-year-olds are too young to go to school, but a 4-year-old can learn more than people give them credit for.”

Crescent principal Danny Pettry noted this is the first year that his school has offered the full-day program, though a half-day program was started in fall 2007. As a part of the curriculum, the pre-schoolers experience physical education and music.

Pettry pointed out the staff and the older students love having the pre-schoolers in the building.

“During the beginning of the school year, they older students help mentor many of the younger ones.”

Hollywood Elementary is representative of the county’s half-day programs. Lilly points out that, although Hollywood is not currently a Title I school, it has an overall low-income enrollment of 40 percent.

“Despite the large concentration of low-income students, Hollywood is one of the highest performing schools in the state; they are exemplary.”

Principal Doug Bird agreed that “attending pre-p makes a huge difference in academics and social skills, and the students tend to adjust really well to attending P.E. and music in different classrooms.”

Hollywood serves between 25 and 30 students who enjoy going on field trips to pumpkin patches, the park and farms, Lilly said.

“We try to give them a well-rounded education, and part of that is taking them on age-appropriate field trips.”

Pre-k teacher Diana Chipley and classroom aide Patricia Tolliver teach two half-day sessions at Hollywood. Last Thursday, the students were taking turns participating in a variety of pumpkin-themed activities, including playing with pumpkin-spice Play-doh, making pumpkin pies in the sand box and painting pumpkins.

“We try to change the stations frequently to keep the kids interested and work with themes that are relevant to the season,” Chipley said.

“It is very important for their first year in school to be really positive,” she continued. “The students work on the classroom computer daily. They use it to listen to stories and practice writing letters. We also work with dramatic play, playing kitchen or dress-up, which promotes high level thinking and problem solving.”

Lilly noted that in Raleigh County students can enroll at any time; the only requirement is that they turn 4 prior to Sept. 1. She concluded by saying that “preschool is something that impacts the students greatly, and we hope that parents will give Raleigh County pre-k a chance.”

—E-mail: splummer@register-herald.com