FLSD partners with education nonprofit program

FOUNTAIN LAKE — Fountain Lake School District has partnered with Waterford Upstart Program, an early education nonprofit program, to ensure preschool-aged students get the educational tools and support they need to be ready for their first day of school.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to partner with parents in a different way, especially with early learning,” Fountain Lake Superintendent Michael Murphy told The Sentinel-Record on Dec. 17.

The program is a year-to-year process. The district researched the company and liked some of the statistics and results that it’s getting on a national scale in early learning and students reading on grade level.

The district has committed to a oneyear contract and will review the program in June and determine how they want to address early learning needs in the future, Murphy said.

“We do believe this one-year contract gives us the opportunity to fill this void during the pandemic (with) lack of on-site participation.

It will also allow for us to consider a future partnership based on parents and student feedback and the impact that it has,” he said.

“We will listen closely to our kindergarten teachers as to how this program has prepared children for kindergarten.”

“Waterford.org is an early education nonprofit with a mission to achieve universal literacy for children through equity, access, and parent empowerment,” a news release said.

“Waterford develops educational tools that guide students along adaptive, individualized learning paths toward fluent reading and lifelong learning. We empower parents as a child’s first teacher, and we support teachers in taking the right actions at the right time for their students,” it said.

“In total, Waterford.org serves more than 300,000 children every year through all of our programs, and that number is continually growing,” the release said.

Fountain Lake decided to partner with Waterford because its overall enrollment in the current early learning program is down due to the pandemic.

“We’ve been researching some solutions to engage parents. So, there’s a lower enrollment and an opportunity to engage parents with their child and the learning process,” Murphy said.

“We have three sections of on-site early learning, and our enrollment this year is much lower than what it has been in years past. Typically, we have a waiting list and 20 children in those programs. Those classes are not full this year. This is an opportunity for us to reach out to maybe some families that didn’t feel comfortable engaging in on-site learning,” he said.

“Enrollment is down in our current on-site program. This will be a method to reach people in their homes,” Murphy said.

Students will benefit because they will be better prepared for kindergarten, which

is the whole rationale behind the program, according to Murphy.

Students will also evolve with the strategies and techniques parents can use to motivate their children to be excited about learning, giving them help to strengthen the relationship between education and their child.

“That’s kind of our rationale; this program allows for the child to interact with the software, as far as the curriculum, but also the parent is directly involved in that process, as well. Understanding specifically what the child is being exposed to and supporting the child in that learning,” Murphy said.

The program aligns directly with the school’s grade- level reading strategy, he said, noting research indicates if students that are kindergarten age are ready to progress, they are more inclined to read at grade level throughout their early elementary schools to high school.

“I would want the community to hopefully understand that we’re committed to the success of their child and providing a variety of resources to support their child in their education. … We hope to have a strong relationship with not only Waterford as a company but also an opportunity for that relationship to exist between the parents and the program and their child,” Murphy said.

The program, which is eligible for any student that is eligible for kindergarten next year, will start in January and run through August.