When a child walks through the door to their preschool classroom for the first time they are not only walking into a world of bright colors, songs and hands-on learning, they are also taking the first step in their educational journey.

Early childhood education is no longer considered a privilege for families who can afford to send their youngest to preschool as a childcare option. It is now a necessary step in making sure a child is ready for school once it is time to take their seat in kindergarten. An early childhood education program teaches children ages 3 to 5 how to successfully interact with others and learn in a school day.

“I, as an educator, view it as a necessity especially in a community that doesn’t have a lot of neighborhood opportunities for kids. This is a huge social learning opportunity for our kids,” said Debbie Harman, Brown County Schools director of student support services.

Currently there are preschool programs at Helmsburg, Sprunica and Van Buren elementary schools that are Paths to Quality Level 3 certifications meaning On My Way Pre-K vouchers can be accepted for qualifying families. On My Way Pre-K vouchers are awarded by the state government to 4-year-olds from low-income families to use at any approved program.

For the last four years, Harman has worked with the Brown County Community Foundation to secure funding to establish a centrally located early childhood education program in Nashville. This school year the accumulation of their work will come together when the doors to the Early Education Center open in the Educational Service Center.

The 3- to 5-year-old classroom will open to educate 10 students on the first day of school, Aug. 8. The goal is to have 20 students in the classroom once another early education teacher is hired. An online application for the full-time teacher position be found at www.browncountyschools.com.

By next January the hope is to have the 2-year-old classroom for 10 students opened.

Enrollment for the 3- to 5-year-old classroom will officially begin on July 25, but anyone interested can go ahead and email their name to Harman at [email protected].

Families in need of care and education four to five days a week will be prioritized for enrollment at the Nashville site. Options for two or three days a week are available at the three elementary school programs and seats are still available for next school year.

The cost for one week of preschool will be $135 — or $27 a day — for all sites including the EEC. Families who enroll their children at the new site in Nashville will also be required to pay to either send their child an additional four weeks at the end of the school or four weeks before the start of the next school year. Providing an option for care in the summer was identified as a need by parents when surveyed by the foundation.

“In order for us to sustain a program that does have some summer options we have to have a commitment on the part of families that enroll,” Harman said of the summer care requirement.

Families will also have the option to pay for eight weeks of preschool in the summer if needed.

Another option for families will be in the Early Education Center after Human Services Inc. moved Head Start there at the end of last school year. The Brown County School Board of Trustees approved the lease for space in the EEC with Human Services Inc. in May. Head Start is a year-round program for qualified families. There are several ways a family can become eligible to send their child to Head Start for free.

“That is a blessing to be able to have them there right in that center. Hopefully that will be a home that they can call theirs for a long time. They have moved around quite a bit over the past few years,” Harman said of Head Start.

“We’re super excited about that partnership.”

Speech and occupational therapy will also available for students in the EEC.

Keeping working families in mind, the EEC will also offer an extended hours option for an extra $27 per week. Extended hours could be either 7 to 8 a.m. or 3 to 5 p.m.

Funding the future

Parents who live here, but leave the county every day to work were also on the minds of the members of the Birth to Five Coalition when picking a location for the EEC.

“I think centrally located in downtown really serves people who are migrating to adjacent counties for work pretty easily,” said Maddison Miller, BCCF chief executive officer.

Working to establish the EEC in Nashville was a “natural extension” to the community foundation’s existing commitment to preschool by providing scholarships to qualifying families, Miller said.

Over the last five years, the community foundation has provided $183,943 in grants for 130 children to attend preschool in Brown County Schools.

“That initial exposure in pre-k really sets the tone for the rest of their educational career. It’s a really important to really get kids off on the right foot, making sure that all children in our community have access to that is incredibly important,” Miller said.

In 2020, the foundation was awarded $234,900 to help start the 3- and 4-year-old preschool program at the Educational Service Center — formerly the Brown County Intermediate School — and create an additional classroom for 2-year-olds.

Miller and Harman — who are both members of the Birth to Five Coalition — worked together on the application to the Regional Opportunity Initiatives for a Ready Communities Implementation grant. That funding helped cover construction costs at the site, which is nearing completion now, Miller said last week.

Finding grant dollars or other funding to help start — and sustain — early childhood education programming is Miller’s job on the coalition as well as working with community partners to make it affordable for families.

Earlier this year the Early Education Center was awarded $11,000 from the Fabulous 50 group. Money from Fab 50 went to help purchase furniture, toys and supplies for the 2-year-old toddler room. The Early Education Center is set to open next school year. Funds will also be used to advertise for open positions in the center.

The Rotary Club of Brown County also partnered with the Birth to Five Coalition to secure a $5,000 grant from the Rotary Foundation that will help fund upgrades to playgrounds at the elementary school and the EEC.

Other donations have been made by private donors through the foundation, Miller said.

“Everyone says ‘This makes sense. This is so desperately needed. It is educational. It is work workforce development. It is economic development.’ We’ve really thought about the program holistically,” she said.

Money from tuition supports teacher and staff salaries and benefits, Harman added.

Brown County Schools is also considering asking voters to approve another operating referendum this fall. Recent discussions about the referendum included possibly asking for an additional penny to help support early childhood education.

In 2016, an operating referendum passed with the support of 59% of voters. Starting with May 2017 tax bills, Brown County property taxpayers began seeing an increase of 8 cents per $100 of assessed value on their tax rate. Asking for an additional penny to fund early childhood education would bump the operating referendum up to 9 cents. State tuition support funding cannot cover the cost of preschool.

The EEC will require more funding to cover paying additional staff too because of a required ratio of one adult-to-10 children. In the elementary schools paraprofessionals in kindergarten through fifth grade can be trained to work in the preschool classrooms if a staff member cannot come into work, but since the Educational Service Center houses the Career Resource Center only that’s not an option. More staff is needed to cover the classrooms in case a teacher cannot come into work.

“Starting up anything costs money, 10 children at $135 a week will not be enough, so grant dollars and other support from the community will be necessary. We have faith we will be able to grow that without raising tuition to levels that are not doable,” Harman said.

Representatives of the Birth to Five Coalition also requested $195,000 from the second round of American Rescue Plan Act funding the county is set to receive this year for COVID-19 relief. That funding would help sustain the EEC for the next year or so by paying for salaries and benefits for the additional employees, Miller said.

At the April 6 Brown County Commissioners meeting, the Birth to Five Coalition formally made a request for the ARPA funding. The foundation partnered with a consulting group to survey employees and parents about childcare issues locally. The results of that survey showed parents have had to miss work or cannot get a job and pass up educational opportunities due not having adequate access to childcare.

The results of that survey helped the foundation receive the grant from ROI to address those concerns.

Harman said the dream would be to have extended hours for the EEC to allow for parents or family members caring for children to have childcare while taking a class at the CRC.

“We have some really nice high-quality daycare homes in the community, but not enough to serve all. I think this site rounds out a little bit further what the options are for families and we know it is all about options,” she said.

‘Growing our own’

Developing the local workforce was a component of the ROI Ready Communities Implementation grant that helped to make the Early Education Center a reality.

“From the beginning we said it is not enough to have more seats for kids that are underserved in the community, we also have to have people to work there,” Miller said.

One strategy to address developing the workforce is to “grow your own,” Miller said.

With staffing the Early Education Center in mind, starting next school year Brown County High School students will have the opportunity to take a child development career technical education (CTE) class. The classroom will be located in the EEC wing of the Educational Service Center.

So far 68 high schoolers have signed up for the class next school year, which will be taught by Jayne Jones who has over 20 years of experience in preschool classrooms.

Students will learn about health, safety, nutrition and the early childhood education curriculum through lectures, hands-on activities and observing preschool classrooms.

After three years in the CTE program, students will be ready to take the Child Development Associate (CDA) exam to get their certification. By the end of the program students will have observed 480 hours of classroom time at the EEC or one of the elementary school programs. They will be required to complete a portfolio that addresses all of the main elements of child development.

After students complete their first year of the program, Jones plans to take them to Ivy Tech for a field so they can better understand their options for furthering their education after graduation. Every course Jones will teach will offer dual credits that can transfer to Ivy Tech or another college if a student wishes to pursue an associate’s degree or higher after graduation.

Previously a child development program was offered through C4 in Columbus, but enrollment for that program was low to due scheduling conflicts.

“This is truly a situation where we are growing our own,” Harman said of starting the program at the high school.

“And our own are staying here and helping to grow the next crop of little ones.”

READy to R.E.A.D.

A new nonprofit has started in the county with a mission to offer free reading tutoring to children.

The mission of READy to R.E.A.D. is “to provide provides intensive, targeted reading tutoring using research based methodologies and strategies.

“We believe that every student has the right to learn how to read in order to be prepared for a lifetime of success,” the mission reads.

Cassie Stratton is the founder and president of READy to R.E.A.D., which recently received its approval to be a 501c3. Stratton taught abroad for 15 years before returning to Indiana and earning her master’s degree in elementary education. She has a licensure in English language learners and is a specialist certified in dyslexia.

“Our services are provided by highly qualified teachers that are specially trained in teaching students with reading difficulties,” Stratton said.

Stratton started the nonprofit as a direct response to student needs. According to data from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 52.7% of students in Brown County live at, or below, the poverty line.

This means they most likely do not have the monetary resources to pay for private literacy tutoring.

“Additionally, Brown County is rural and isolated. This requires students to travel 30 minutes or more to receive the nearest available tutoring services,” Stratton said.

“Most importantly, I believe that literacy is a right, not a privilege reserved for only those who can afford to pay for it.”

The nonprofit is supported by a board of educators and community members who will help make the mission a reality.

Stratton said she looks forward to working with other community members, teachers, businesses, Brown County Schools and the Brown County Literacy Coalition.

“I feel literacy is a vital component of being able to thrive and make positive contributions to one’s community. Brown County is my home, my community. I want to give to it, build it and invest in it,” she said.

Stratton plans to join the Birth to Five Coalition, which worked to open the Early Education Center at the Education Service Center in Nashville. Stratton also plans to help with literacy lessons in the classroom.

For more information on this new nonprofit and to make a donation to cover tutoring costs visit www.ready-to-read.org.

Learn more

Come see what the new Early Education Center is all about later this month when Brown County Schools host an open house on July 19.

The open house will be from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Early Education Center located in the Educational Service Center, 260 Schoolhouse Lane.

Enrollment for the 3- to 5-year-old classroom starts on July 25. Priority will be given to families who wish to send their child to preschool four to five days a week and who need care in the summer months. Ten students will be accepted for the classroom with a capacity to grow to 20 after more staff is hired.

A 2-year-old classroom is expected to open for 10 students by January in the EEC. For more information visit www.browncountyschools.com.

Head Start will also hold classes in the Early Education Center starting this year and they have many openings. Children must be 3 prior to Aug. 1 to attend. Head Start is a year-round program for qualified families. There are several ways a family can become eligible to send their child to Head Start for free. Children do not need to be potty trained in order to attend.

For more information on Head Start call 812-988-6601 Ext. 1920 or email [email protected].