Salem Public Schools To Add Full-Day Pre-Kindergarten Programs

SALEM, MA — Salem Public Schools is expanding full-day, pre-kindergarten options for young students in the city starting with the upcoming school year.

Superintendent of Schools Steve Zrike said in a letter to the school community that the district will use additional coronavirus funding to open the new classrooms for 4-year-olds. The programs will be free and open to young students five days per week for the duration of the 2020-21 school year.

"As you can imagine, this could necessitate changes to aspects of our current programming at the Salem Early Childhood Center in order to create an equitable experience for our youngest learners," Zrike said.

He said the district hopes to provide more information in the coming weeks, including the enrollment process and more details about the process.

"We are excited to collaborate with our community partners to launch this effort to offer universal, quality preschool programming across the city of Salem," Zrike said.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)