Louisville’s Pre-K program gets awarded $1.5 million from MDE
LOUISVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – School may be out for the Summer, but districts are busy planning for the coming school year.
The Mississippi State Board of Education is also helping some districts with long-range planning.
The Board is awarding more than $24 million in grants to 20 school districts, including some in our area.
The money is to help fund high-quality Pre-K programs
The Louisville School District is one of the big recipients.
The Mississippi State Board of Education is supporting the State Invested Pre-K (SIP) programs by awarding over $24 million to 20 school districts.
The Louisville School District will be getting $500,000 a year for the next 3 years for a total of $1.5 million.
“I was sitting on the edge of my seat when I saw the deadline had passed, and when I knew they were going to release the winners,” Sarah Webb said.
Fair Elementary School Principal, Sarah Webb, said it’s inspiring to see the State investing in the future of early learning.
“I hope that this grant is just the beginning of our expansion of the Pre-K program,” Webb said. “We can continue this and sustain it for years to come. Because we know that children are always going to need school.”
The grant was distributed based on several factors, including performance on 3rd-grade state testing and the number of students in the district.
Educators see the injection of money as an opportunity for improvement.
“We want kids to learn socially, learn their academics, learn behaviors and all move on the right direction of Kindergarten readiness and just literacy readiness,” Webb said.
With the grant funding, the district plans on hiring new teachers, adding more classes and improving instructional material.
Administrators said it will help meet an important educational need in the community.
“We had community members constantly reaching out to the school asking when we were going to get more pre-K classes,” Cynthia McDonald, former Fair elementary principal and current district test coordinator said. “There were parents desperate to have their children in a quality early learning program. It’s just exciting to know that the state department has come to our rescue and helped us to be able to provide those services to our community.”
And the news is causing excitement among the educators themselves.
“It makes me want to come here more and want to do more. Anything that got to do with learning, I’m all for it so it’s going to be good and I’m excited for it and we want to thank the state for just giving us the funds to go ahead and do this, which provide resources for the kids,” Tamika Short, Pre-K teacher said.
Louisville’s Pre-K and HeadStart students will begin the new school year on August 1.
