Minooka Community Consolidated School District 201 recently announced it is the recipient of the Illinois State Board of Education’s Pre-School for All Grant.
Funds in the amount of $858,000 will go toward maintaining and improving the pre-school programs at Minooka Primary Center.
"For last school year, the 2018-19, we did not win the competitive grant," Superintendent Kris Monn said. "We had actually lost our funding for that year of about $325,000 that we had gotten for many, many years. Then, this year, they opened up a new round of the competitive grants. We were able to write a new one. Mrs. Miller and her team did a fantastic job and we were awarded a grant of $858,000 this year."
Under Pre-School for All, children ages 3-4 from low- to moderate-income families are enrolled at no cost.
Minooka Primary Center principal Teresa Miller spoke on how the grant expands access.
"We're hoping to be able to expand that number because our kindergarten size is we usually have around 400 if not more kindergarteners who go into our elementary buildings. We need to still pick up more of these kids, so we know they're ready for kindergarten."
Currently, Minooka Primary Center has a student enrollment of 240.
The program has its limitations, officials said.
Miler said the district is still working to achieve the goal to service all pre-school age children in the community.
"We're hoping to be able to expand that number because our kindergarten size is we usually have around 400 if not more kindergarteners who go into our elementary buildings. We need to still pick up more of these kids, so we know they're ready for kindergarten."
Minooka Primary Center will serve an additional 30 students this school year, officials said.
Monn explained a benefit to enrolling children in pre-school.
"Pre-school education is such a critical component to readiness all the way throughout a student’s educational life,” Monn said. “I mean, if you look at the focus of both state and our district, you know, we want kids to come into kindergarten ready to really take off with their elementary education. Students that don’t go through some type of quality pre-school program really start a little behind in many cases. So, any time we can get more students in pre-school setting whether it’s through us or a private setting, it really enhances their ability to learn once they get into kindergarten.”