By Adam Eisenbarth
Bentley School is broadening its horizons to better accommodate youngsters in the community.
Wolf Creek Public Schools has approved a pilot project playschool for three- and four- year-old children in the 2010-2011 school year that will determine whether such an addition can sustain itself without the need of continual outside funding. If it can, the school should have the addition for years to come.
Principal Lane Moore says it was a perfect fit for the town.
“We have a playschool here in town that is a not-for-profit group and they were struggling to get volunteers and fundraise and that sort of thing, so we approached them and had conversations with them about running this program in our school and taking over the operations of that program.”
The school is considering running half-day programs on Mondays and Wednesdays for what should be a positive enhancement for students in their early learning years.
“We have a certified teacher teaching the program and it is the same teacher teaching the program.” The teacher also teaches in the five-year-old program and will have the chance to work with kids for up to three years.
“She’ll be able to work with them, know where they’re at and really get them ready for Grade 1.”
Moore also believes having the program attached to the school will enable them to better serve the children who need early intervention.
“It will allow them a program that is at their age level and at their development level and when they’re in those peer groups they just grow leaps and bounds rather than being in an older group.”
The school has worked hard to better serve the community and with other programs, Moore believes the school is doing its part.
“This program is one of our many new programs that we’re offering, as well as the hockey academy, athletics and fine arts. This is just one of those pieces we’re trying to provide for our community.”
The school had an open house earlier in June and has already registered 15 to 20 students for the program.
“If we start to grow more than that we’ll have to look at expanding and operating another half-day session it just depends on our numbers,” Moore said.
The project has received positive feedback and appears to be on track to sustain itself for future years.
“We talked to our parent group, we talked to our staff, their parents at the playschool and everyone thought it would be a great idea if we were able to take over the program.”
Moore is looking forward to getting the project up and running in the fall.
“This was just a natural piece to fit right in there to the rest of our school.”