North Thurston Public Schools (NTPS) Director of Early Learning Dr. Dianne Heckman reported expanding the district’s early learning program after results showed improved performance in pupils.
“Considering our high rates, referrals, and children that we identified, we are expanding our integrated preschool program,” Heckman told the school board at its meeting on Tuesday, January 9 at Pleasant Glade Elementary School. “We are adding three full-time and one part-time preschool classroom, she added”
NTPS has 1,043 kindergarten students, 47% of whom accessed preschool, daycare, or licensed in-home childcare before enrolling in kindergarten this year.
Heckman also reported that after December 1, the district’s early learning centers provided preschool programs to 381 preschool students, with 322 of them having individually designed special education services.
Future-Ready Kindergarten (FRK) is the district’s free, early-entrance preschool for children who are set to start kindergarten in the following September.
According to its website, FRK is a transitional kindergarten program focusing on the fundamental academic and social-emotional abilities required for school.
Currently, the program is offered at Chambers Prairie, Horizons, Lacey, Lakes, Lydia Hawk, and Seven Oaks elementary schools.
After attending this transitional program, the students will start kindergarten in the 2024-2025 school year with the rest of their peers.
Heckman shared that the youngsters enrolled in the program exhibited readiness in six domains – socio-emotional, physical, language, cognitive, literacy, and mathematics.
“We have currently 101 students enrolled in our transitional kindergarten program,” said Heckman. “And the exciting thing about this is [that] 60% of the students who participated in the Future-Ready Kindergarten last year, entered kindergarten this year, demonstrating readiness in all six domains.”
Although they did not reach the district’s 65% target, Heckman acknowledged that NTPS is in “partial compliance” because some schools have shown improved data.
The school year 2023-2024 classes began last December 2023, and the FRK application is currently closed for now.
NTPS also pioneered two family-friendly educational programs – the Success in the Early Years Family Education Series and Bilingual Story Times.
“One of our goals with that program is not just to share information that will help families get their children ready for school, but to connect them with opportunities in our community,” said Heckman.
The Success in the Early Years Family Education Series is currently in its fifth year. It is a virtual workshop to discuss school readiness, resources, and other details related to the session topic with other parents.
The Bilingual Story Time Program or Programa de Cuentos Bilingües is a monthly in-person bilingual story session for preschoolers aged three to five, with family activities and snacks.
The board listed the continuation of these programs in their next steps.
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