On Early Childhood Education - Our district is succeeding!

Campaign materials continue to blanket Christina voters citing five important issues. I'd like to address those issues, starting with the "Investment in Early Childhood."

I have had the honor of serving as the Christina Board of Education's liason for the last three years to our district's Early Childhood Parent Council. The Council is the link between the people within the program making decisions and the people receiving services. Members review and approve plans for policies and procedures, child development services, family and community partnership programs, parent and family activities, health and nutrition, and other areas of early education.  As you can see, this council of parents has a tremendous role in developing and evolving early education in Christina.

When I first joined the Christina board, our district's early education programs were spread out across our district.  While our programs were solid with long waiting lists, we had a challenge on our hand -operating a comprehensive and consistent program located in many different elementary schools.

Over the last three years, I have been a part of a major projects to benefit our early education programs.  This year, these efforts culminated in the opening the "Christina Early Education Center" in Newark. It brings many of our programs and classrooms together under one roof in their own school.  This model allows Christina to create more diverse and integrated learning environments for our youngest learners.  The center allows our teachers to have real time access to each other to consult on teaching methodologies and seek support and advice when they encounter a challenge in their classrooms.  And the results are already bearing fruit:   Our investment has been recognized as a model to replicate for other districts in Delaware and elsewhere in the country. 

I am also proud of our work early education work on another front - this Christina School Board has negotiated the pilot of Delaware's FIRST Public Montessori Program.  This September we will open our pilot both in Wilmington and Newark. The Montessori model is well-researched and respected by educators across the nation.  I can only hope that I can continue to serve on the board as our pilot program takes root and begins to impact the education of our CSD children!

However, our work is not finished.  Early childhood education programs continue to face barriers: 

1.  As CSD enters the second year of the Newark-based center phasi in, I am still cognizant that we do not have a similar center for our children attending our Wilmington schools.  Our young learners in Wilmington do have access to both full-day and half-day programs, including our bilingual kindergarten program at Pulaski.  However, I believe that Christina needs to vet the feasibility and the costs/benefits of establishing an early education center in Wilmington. 

2. One of the biggest challenges facing parents of young learners today is a lack of capacity in the best and most affordable programs.  In Newark, the move to a central school will allow our early education program to offer more seats over time.  However, we need to establish a plan for how that growth will occur. That plan must address a lack of state and federal funding created by an antequated view of early education.

In Delaware, early education is not compulsory, parents are not required to enroll their young children in education programs, and that is their right.  However, the downside is a lack of state or federal funding for parents who would like to engage our programs.  Christina does receive IDEA funding and Title I funds for those children who qualify.  We do have a limited number of "headstart seats." We are also participating in grants that help support our programs.

However, the lack of state funding for the "average" child does effect our ability to add classrooms.  Because early education is optional, districts need to charge tuition to those students who do not qualify under IDEA or Headstart.  Tuition-based programs must essentially support themselves. 

How we plan our growth will take incredible planning and oversight as we manage very constrained budgets.  School board members have a huge roll to play in this both in the way we allocate local funds to support our early education programs and how we approach our legislators in Dover.  School board members must lead the rally both in educating our representatives and working for more funding, especially for those parents whose children do not qualify for the limited federally funded seats that the district has been allotted and who lack the resources to afford it themselves.

I believe that with best practices already at work in Christina and with state and national recognition in hand, we should be leading the fight for universal early education in high achieving programs for all parents who want it.  Our Governor has made several one-time investments in early education.  Delaware has accessed the Early Childhood Race to the Top Grant program.  It's time for more than one-time or short-term investments.  It's time to codify access to early education and to put our state dollars behind it.  Christina has committed the local funds, but the state needs to legislate their own committment.  And leading that charge is the most impactful action Christina's school board members can take.