Starting next school year, 85 percent of 4-year-olds in Marion County will be enrolled in a public preschool program.
That’s the result of a grant-funded learning collaborative headed up by the Marion County School District that also involves the Columbia School District, Pearl River Valley Opportunity Inc. and two daycares.
The Marion County school board received an update Monday.
Curriculum Director Michael Day said they are touring existing programs in Petal and Lamar County this week and that registration will begin the first week of April with promotions coming out before that.
He said it’s moving along at a fast pace with rapid deadlines from the Mississippi Department of Education, which is funding the effort through a $1.1 million grant over three years.
New pre-K classrooms will be added and some already in existence will be upgraded through the grant. Day said they include:
• Five in Columbia
• Two at East Marion (one run by the county school district and one by PRVO Head Start)
• Two at West Marion (one by the county and one by PRVO)
• Two at daycares: Tender Loving Care in Lakeview and My Luv on Church Street.
Each classroom will have the same new equipment and materials and teacher training will begin in the summer. They will reach about 200 children.
Superintendent Wendy Bracey thanked West Marion Primary Principal Vicki Boone and East Marion Elementary Principal Chase Robbins for attending training, saying there’s a difference in the standards between pre-K and kindergarten.
Board Member Larry Jenkins asked how many students would be enrolled at East and West, and Day said each of the two classrooms at each school can have 20 students for a total of 40 at each school. Day said the goal is to fill every seat.
“Our goal is to fill every seat because if we don’t fill that seat we potentially have to pay that money back to the grant,” Day said.
Marion County is one of just five places that received approval in late 2018 to host a learning collaborative. The others are in Hattiesburg, Cleveland, George County and Oxford. There are currently 14 others such sites throughout the state as part of a gradual adoption of pre-K.
The grant for Marion County is $387,000 per year from January 2019 to June 2019, July 2019 to June 2020 and July 2020 to June 2021. Other partners in the collaborative include the Columbia-Marion County Public Library and the Excel by 5 group.
Also Monday, the board accepted the following resignations:
• John Oglesbee, an engineering teacher at the tech center, effective June 30.
• Mary Nell Livingston and Tabitha Hewitt, retiring from West Marion Primary at the end of the school year.
• Jamie Yawn and Laura Leonard, special education teachers at East Marion High School, effective at end of the school year. Bracey said they have been traveling and are taking jobs closer to their homes.
• Jennifer Bochicchio, who has 25 years of service, is retiring at the end of the school year from West Marion High School.
The board approved hiring recently retired 16th Section Land Manager David Watts and Business Manager Donna Martin to do training on an as-needed basis to help prepare their replacements.
