The Ignacio School District and the Southern Colorado Community Action Agency are joining forces to forge a new preschool that will open its doors in August.
“We began to generate this conversation about the universal pre-K program about a year and a half ago when we knew it was going to happen,” said Ignacio School District Superintendent Chris deKay. “(Gov. Jared) Polis was very adamant two years ago that he wanted to see it happen.”
Universal Preschool Colorado, a billsigned by Polis in 2022, was written with the intention of providing free schooling to 3 and 4-year-old children from low-income families. The program launched its application process at the beginning of January for the 2023-24 school year, ensuring that every pre-kindergarten-aged child will have access to state-funded preschool at a minimum of 15 hours a week, according to the Colorado Legislature website.
A majority of the funds from the Nicotine Products Tax implemented in 2020 will go toward funding Universal Preschool.
Currently, Ignacio has two preschools: one at the Southern Ute Montessori Academy and the other at the Ignacio Early Learning Program run by SoCoCAA. DeKay said a collaboration between the Early Learning Program and the Ignacio School District was needed to figure out how a new, state-funded preschool would work in the rural town.
“Just this last month, we got approval from SoCoCAA and from the school board to move in that direction and get things going,” deKay said. “We understand that there are going to be some upfront costs, but the state has some grants that they really want to use to support school districts with those upfront costs.”
DeKay said the next step toward bringing a new preschool into Ignacio is finding a suitable location both the school district and SoCoCAA can agree upon.
“We would like to develop in the exact same location (the Early Learning Program site) using the exact same buildings and maybe adding more classrooms,” deKay said. “We would like to develop that as a pre-K campus. We would like to collaborate with the staff that's already there, and work with them and with SoCoCAA so that we can create the best possible environment for our children in the Ignacio community.”
DeKay hopes the new preschool will encourage every Ignacio parent with a 3- and 4-year-old child to register.
“We estimate currently that we serve about 25 to 30% of students in the Ignacio community,” he said. “That’s the amount who have been exposed to learning opportunities prior to kindergarten. We would like to see that number bumped up to around 90% who have had pre-K exposure.”
DeKay believes exposure to a preschool setting is crucial to later developmental learning in children.
“There's a lot of great research around that,” he said. “You don't have to dig very deep into Google to find the amount of support that pre-K education has and the amount of impact it has. Not just immediate impact, but the long term impact. We want to make sure that all of our pre-K students have access to free, high-quality education.”
The Learning Policy Institute came out with a 2019 study that showed a substantial difference in success between those students who attended preschool and those who did not, including higher literacy and math skills for those who had schooling prior to kindergarten.
“Attending preschool saves a lot of time in kindergarten, where procedure and structure has already been established,” deKay said.
DeKay pointed out that the criteria for the children who qualify for Universal Preschool Colorado is why a town like Ignacio is a perfect fit for the program.
“One of the qualifying factors according to the state are children who live in low-income households,” he said. “Also children who are dual-language learners, students on an individual education plan, and children who are in foster care or identified as homeless. That's going to be a fair percentage of children out in the Ignacio community. We think that these qualifying factors will allow us to get funding for 30-hour slots.”
Undaunted by the amount of work that lies ahead for the Ignacio School District and Early Learning Program, deKay is excited for the opportunity to provide free schooling to all young children in the area.
“We think this is a good, long-term approach to really improving education for children out here in Ignacio,” he said. “We’re excited about it. We understand that it's going to be a lot of work to do it right. We're going to work really hard to apply for grants and develop and finalize a budget that's fiscally responsible. But we hope this will impact them for the rest of their lives and improve the community in a really positive way.”
Ignacio parents interested in signing up their children for the new school can visit the state’s website at UPK.Colorado.gov for an application.
molsen@durangoherald.com
