At the Jan. 31 meeting of the Island Trees Board of Education, the board authorized Superintendent Richard Segerdahl to establish a Prekindergarten Policy Advisory Board.

This establishment of an advisory board has come about as a result of the state education department announcing that all school districts in the state are now eligible for an annual grant for this program. In previous years Island Trees was not eligible for this grant because it was based upon need and wealth within the school district. According to recent information from the SD, Island Trees would be eligible for $2000 per student to be used toward this program. Segerdahl has estimated that the district would be eligible for a total of $426,000 based upon a potential of 213 4-year olds who would be eligible for universal pre-K.

Segerdahl explained that this universal pre-K program would only be open to 4 year olds but the district would continue to run its own program, in cooperation with SCOPE, for 3 year olds. Whereas the Island Trees/SCOPE program is only three days a week and is a self-sustaining program that runs for 100 days a year, the program for 4 year olds would not cost the parents anything and would run five days a week for 180 days a year.

The fact that this program is funded by the state, Segerdahl noted, is important because it would provide the opportunity for early intervention for families who may not be able to afford prekindergarten.

According to the superintendent, the state mandates that the district must give at least 10 percent of the funding they receive to an outside establishment to run the pre-K program. Segerdahl said that Island Trees would most likely give 100 percent of the funding to a group, such as SCOPE to run the program, because it would reduce the district's overhead costs. Segerdahl further noted that by running the universal pre-K program at Gallow, where the current pre-K program is run, the district's students would be able to still benefit from the service provided by BOCES, who run their special education preschool at Gallow. Though the BOCES program is an all-day one, the universal pre-K program, like the district's current pre-K would only run 2 1/2 hours a day.

The only problem with the district establishing this universal pre-K program this year, according to Segerdahl, is that the governor's budget proposal does not include any funding for additional districts to receive universal pre-k grants. It only funds those programs which have previously been established. The Island Trees School District would not establish such a program without state funding, but as the governor's budget proposal is just the first step in the budget process, Segerdahl is hopeful that the Senate and Assembly proposals would include such funding and that it would be included in the final state budget. Because the earliest the state budget would be finalized would be in April, in order to be able to begin such a program in September, if it is funded, the district must now prepare a program in the hopes that it will be funded. Setting up this advisory board does not guarantee that the district will have a universal pre-K program in September. In addition, the board of education and administration must follow the directive of the advisory board, therefore if they determine that a universal pre-k program is not in the best interests of or is not feasible for the district, no such program will be established.