Early Learning Collaborative offers pre-K and beyond
A grant from the Mississippi Department of Education starting in January will allow the StarkvilleOktibbeha Consolidated School District’s pre-K programs to offer even more to the community.
The programs were named one of the state’s Early Learning Collaborative in November 2016, with the program beginning in January. The funding provides services to 115 children at two sites, the Emerson Preschool at the Emerson Family Resource Center and the Institute of Community Services Head Start. Services offered through the collaborative include health screenings for children, teachers with a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in early childhood and assistants with at least an associate’s degree in early childhood, professional development for early childhood teachers, workshops and training for parents, assessments for children in the program and assessments for classrooms. Classrooms in the collaborative follow the Opening the World of Learning curriculum.
“You have to apply,” said Emerson Director Joan Butler. “You submit a proposal, it was very easy for us, because we already had a lot of the requirements in place. That made it easy for us to really be able to put something together that would meet the criteria. Then you’re selected in a competition with other school districts that would like to do the same thing.”
Starkville Oktibbeha is one of 14 collaboratives across the state Funding is provided for 115 prek students at approximately $2,000 per student plus a community match.
Individuals or corporations may make a contribution to support the matching fund of the collaborative. Donors may be eligible to receive a state tax credit for donated amounts of up to $1 million.
“We’re growing it from the standpoint of trying to get more financial contributions to our program, which in turn would allow us to expand our services through these tax credits and allow us to grow this program,” Butler said. “We already are a model program in the existing program, but we only serve 115 children right now.”
The program also recently received a $150,000 donation from 2nd Chance Mississippi, an organization founded by Mississippi trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs. The funds will be used to fund adult education and other programs to help parents of children in the pre-K program.
“We’ve taken those funds and put it with the collaborative money, and now we’re working with the parents of the children in the collaborative,” Butler said. “What we’re doing with them is we provide them with high school equivalency if they need it or an actual online high school diploma.”
The funds will also be used to help parents enroll in certain career and technical programs at East Mississippi Community College.
For more information on preK and the collaborative, Emerson Family Centered Programs can be reached at 662-615-0033.