Matawan-Aberdeen School District To Start Offering Free Pre-K

ABERDEEN, NJ — A very timely Christmas present has come to the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District: $1.5 million in state aid to offer free, full-day pre-K.

Matawan-Aberdeen Regional has long wanted to expand its pre-K, and applied for the money from Trenton in November. Just this Monday, Dec. 21, the district learned it would be receiving $1,574,034.

"This is huge and amazing; we're really excited," said MARSD assistant superintendent Nelyda Perez. "We need the great news after this year."

Currently, Matawan-Aberdeen does offer full-day pre-K out of a building at 1 Cambridge Park, but parents must pay for it. It cost $6,600 a year and operates September to June, with the regular school calendar.

However, this windfall of state funding from Trenton will allow the district to now offer it for free, starting in February 2021.

"Matawan-Aberdeen Regional had to show it has a certain percentage of low-income students in our community, and those students were missing out," said Perez. "Now all of our young ones have an opportunity to come to school for free."

"New students will come in starting February 2021, and then in September, another round of new students will enter," said Perez. "This is open to Aberdeen three- and four-year-olds; they need to turn three prior to Oct. 1."

The money will also enable the district to add more pre-K classrooms to 1 Cambridge Park, she said.

Assemblymen Rob Clifton and Ron Dancer, Republicans who represent the Matawan-Aberdeen area in Trenton, welcomed the news.

“I’m thankful more families in our district will reap the rewards of an early education," said Clifton.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced the funding Monday that would spread $10 million for preschool education across 10 districts in the state. The amount of preschool aid is based on the number of low-income students in each district. The funding is being directed to districts that do not receive state aid for preschool, and have more than 20 percent of their students receiving free or reduced lunch.

MARSD is also looking to partner with existing pre-Ks to send students there. For example, the district already partners with the YMCA of Monmouth County, which is located in Matawan.

Matawan-Aberdeen Regional also offers special education pre-K.