Commissioner questions need for Pre-K during joint meeting with school board
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 23, 2017 8:24 AM
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Wayne County Commissioner Joe Daughtery speaks during a meeting with the school board Tuesday.
Wayne County Commissioner Joe Daughtery Tuesday questioned the need for a pre-Kindergarten program when the county should be concentrating on improving K-12 education.
That is particularly true since the pre-K program is not state-mandated, he said.
"All I am saying is let's all acknowledge the fact that there are improvements that we can make in K through 12," Daughtery said. "Let's get that running smoothly before we expand into new programs."
Daughtery's comments drew a mixed response from Wayne County School Board members during a Tuesday joint meeting of the two boards.
School Board member Jennifer Strickland agreed with Daughtery, while Raymond Smith Jr. called the comments "out of touch."
Currently Wayne County Public Schools are serving 300 children at 10 different sites countywide in pre-K classrooms, said Tarmara Ishee, the schools system's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
"I hear what you are saying, but we will absolutely not be successful in kindergarten, first and second grade in teaching children to read unless we take our highest-need children and get them ready to walk into the door in kindergarten," Ms. Ishee said.
"We will be failing more children and be a low-performing school system if we don't get our highest-need children ready for school."
It takes about $12,000 to set up a pre-K classroom and $55,000 annually to run one including salaries and food for children, Ms. Ishee said.
Commissioner Joe Gurley asked about the requirements for the pre-kindergarten program.
Children must be 4 years old by a certain date, Ms. Ishee said.
Gurley said he recalled something said about "high needs."
"So if they have a high need in speech and language or learning disability, if they qualify for that, then they move to the front of the line," said Wayne County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore. "Then its based on the financial need."
Smith said his wife is an elementary school principal so he hears about the program.
"She unequivocally says pre-K is absolutely necessary," Smith said. "Now those who may say that it is not, maybe your kids had advantages other kids did not. So when you say the least of us don't need it, I think you are out of touch.
"The least of us need it more than anybody else. To sit here and say pre-K is not necessary is completely out of touch, and the bottom line is we don't pay for it. It is not coming out of our budget."
But the county is providing access as far as facilities are concerned, and it is not a financial burden on the school system, Smith said.
"So I can't even fathom this conversation -- sitting here saying certain kids don't need education," he said. "That is what I hear. That is a conversation I don't want to be part of. The bottom line is that it is absolutely necessary. I live with a principal. She deals with this every day.
"You have a kid come into kindergarten for the first and never had any access. That is a tough sale. You talk about being behind Mr. Daughtery, a kid that walks in the door not ready for the first day of school, that teacher has got something to deal with. Those of us in education know about that. So it is something that I think we need to really to think about before we open our mouths and say certain things because there is more to it than what you may see or may know."
Mrs. Strickland said she was probably the only one in the room representing the school side who disagrees with everything seen in the pre-kindergarten field.
People can look at data that shows children benefit from the program, she said.
"Then you can look at data coming out of Finland where the kids are waiting an extra year to start school, and their grades are higher," she said. "They don't have to begin school until they are 6."
She cited a study out of Charlotte from some five or six years ago.
The children who are missed are the "middle-ground" ones, she said.
"Kids that come from high income, their parents can afford the high-end day care," Mrs. Strickland said. "The kids from the very low income, their parents are getting the services through WAGES and other groups.
"It is that middle group that is missed constantly. But when they average these students out with a quality public education, once they get about ninth or tenth grade. They could not tell a difference in the students."
It is more of a philosophical approach to what a person thinks is right, Mrs. Strickland said.
"As soon as you pull up one article that says one thing, you can find one that says the other," she said. "I argue all of the time that we ought to get pre-K out of our schools because kindergarten classes are overloaded."
Also, pre-K is controlled by the Department of Health and Human Services, Mrs. Strickland said.
"So now you have two different entities that can come into the schools and tell the principals whether they get demerits or not for properly handling things," she said. "We had a situation where water temperatures had to be set to a certain level for pre-K. But that is a different rule for what has to be set for elementary."
So now money not budgeted for a school had to be spent because we had to go in and put new water temperature controls, she said.
School Board member Chris West suggested commissioners invite all elementary school principals to a meeting to ask them about the pre-K program.
"You will need to black screen their face because they are not going to tell you the truth if they think it going to come back," Mrs. Strickland said.