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Hoover schools superintendent: Strong demand for new pre-K classes

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Photo courtesy of Rob Hainer/Bigstock

Demand was strong for the new pre-kindergarten classes that five Hoover elementary schools will offer this school year, Superintendent Kathy Murphy told the school board Thursday night.

Parents of 386 children asked to participate in the new pre-K classes, but the $600,000 in grants received by the state unfortunately will allow the district to serve only 90 of those students this school year, Murphy said. That’s 23 percent of those who wanted pre-K services.

School officials held lotteries today to randomly select which students would be able to participate, and principals will notify parents whose children were selected, Murphy said.

The school district plans to maintain waiting lists for each pre-class in case a student selected moves to another school district, said Autumm Jetter, the school district’s director of curriculum and instruction.

The new pre-K classes are being offered at Green Valley, Greystone, Gwin, Rocky Ridge and South Shades Crest elementary schools. Each school received a $120,000 grant from the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education, and each school will have one pre-K class with 18 students, said Claire Jones-Moore, the district’s director of instructional support services.

At each school, the grant will cover the cost of a lead teacher, auxiliary teacher, tables, cubby hole shelves, curriculum, field trips and parental engagement activities, Jones-Moore said.

School districts are allowed to charge a tuition fee, but for this first year, the Hoover school district will absorb the cost, and pre-K services will be offered free of charge, Murphy said.

If districts charge a fee, the minimum fee is $40 per month, but it could be more, Murphy said. The fee is used to sustain the program once grant money goes away, she said.

Each Hoover school that received a grant for this school year will apply for a second phase of grants that assist school districts with pre-K costs over the following three years, Murphy said.

Also, those Hoover schools that did not apply for grants this year likely will apply for pre-K grants for the following year, she said. She would love for every Hoover elementary school to offer a pre-K program, she said.

The large number of families that requested to be part of the program this year is evidence of the demand, Murphy said.

Gwin Elementary had 109 families express interest, while there were 99 families at South Shades Crest, 70 at Rocky Ridge, 65 at Green Valley and 43 at Greystone, Murphy said.

Those children are not necessarily from those elementary school zones, Murphy said. Children were eligible for the pre-K program at any elementary school that is in the same middle school feeder pattern as the child’s elementary school, she said. For example, students from Shades Mountain or Riverchase elementary schools could apply for the pre-K program at either Rocky Ridge or Greystone elementary schools since each of those schools is in the Berry Middle School zone.

“There is a huge interest in our community to prepare our students and help them get ready for school,” Murphy said.

Trace Crossings Elementary School is the only Hoover school that has had a pre-K program to date. It is primarily designed for students with special needs, but other students participate as well, Murphy said.

In addition to the grants given to Hoover schools, the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education also approved a grant to offer a pre-K class at a Regions Bank office in Riverchase this school year.

In all, the state approved grants for 164 new pre-K classrooms in 38 counties this fall in the first round of grant awards, according to the governor's office. More grants were to be announced before the beginning of the 2019-20 school year, the governor's office said. With the grants announced in June, the state is funding 1,202 pre-K classrooms statewide.

In other business Thursday night, the Hoover school board:

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