District 197 Early Learning Directors Ask for More Space

A request for additional space to house early education and early special education programs in District 197 was rebuffed Dec. 6 by some members of the cash-strapped school board.*

Bernadette Wood, director of community education, and Marcy Doud, director of special programs, presented an update to the board on the early education programs in the West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan School District, culminating in a request for extra space.

The program serves 535 students ages 0-5, both through early childhood education and early childhood special education. The programs take up 20 classrooms spread throughout the district's school buildings and now operates at capacity, though Doud said ideally the programs should be reaching 1,000 students ages 0-5 born in the district.

Wood told the board that as enrollment in the elementary schools increases, the early education programs get crowded out.

Additional facilities should be found in an accessible location in the district, said Wood, to provide a centralized location for programming in addition to the space and resources present in the school buildings.

While board members didn't deny the importance of early childhood education, those who spoke emphasized finding a different solution.

The board is in the beginning steps of cutting at least $1.4 million to balance the 2011-2012 budget.

 "In an age of austerity, when someone says 'I want a new building' it screams 'overhead' to me, and that's a bit scary," said board member Mark Spurr.

The presenters did not have details on the cost of finding additional program space, which prompted Spurr to call it a "chicken and the egg" scenario.

 "I'm looking for other ways to get this done than putting in another building, frankly," said board chair Robin Rainford.

Wood and Doud said they would be simultaneously looking for ways to collaborate with other agencies such as the county to provide services, similar to the early education program in Inver Grove Heights' District 199.

Research on early education points to a strong return on investment when schools target at-risk students for school-readiness programs before entering kindergarten.

Within the district, 38 percent of K-12 students are enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program. Fourteen percent participate in special education and ten percent are enrolled in English language learning. Some students are categorized in more than one category.

Rainford encouraged the presenters to bring forward more information addressing the problem and potential solutions at the work session scheduled for 5-7 p.m., Dec. 20 in conference room A-241 of Henry Sibley High School.

* This story was amended at 1:30 p.m. Tues., Dec. 6 to reflect that the directors want to buy or rent additional space, not construct a new building.