New Preschool Program To Launch At Ocean City Primary School

OCEAN CITY, NJ — Thanks to some recently announced state funding, the Ocean City Public School District can begin offering full-day, general education preschool at the Ocean City Primary School on Jan. 2, 2019.

The district has been awarded Preschool Education Expansion Aid (PEEA) funding from New Jersey’s Department of Education, Division of Early Childhood Education, for the 2018-19 school year.

The state funding allows the district to provide this preschool program free-of-charge for in-district families, with spots initially available for 21 children. Children must be ages 3 or 4 and ready to begin kindergarten in 2019 or 2020. Those with an economic need or who are non-native English speakers will be given priority during the application process.

The schedule will be the same as the rest of the school district. The state expects to make PEEA funding available beyond the current school year to maintain and enhance high-quality preschool programs, such as this one, across the state, according to the district.

The district will host a Preschool Open House on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 4 p.m.-5 p.m. at the Ocean City Primary School. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and pick up enrollment forms. Anyone with questions prior to the Open House should contact Lauren Gunther, curriculum director, at 609-399-3161, ext. 8747.

The Ocean City School District currently operates a Preschool Disabled Program that provides appropriate educational experiences for children ages 3 and 4 who experience developmental delays in the areas of speech and language, motor development, cognition and/or social emotional functioning. This program will continue as is, with the new preschool program building off of its many strengths, including its use of Creative Curriculum, which teachers have found offers innovative instructional strategies to meet the unique needs of young learners, according to the district.

Because the new preschool program is capped at 21 students, it cannot serve all in-district preschoolers. However, the district will launch a new Raider Ready Program this year to help prepare all pre-K students, and their guardians, for the transition to Kindergarten.

The first Raider Ready session will run Nov. 13 from 4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. to introduce key personnel, program goals and upcoming topics at OCPS. Parents of young children are encouraged to save the date for both the first Raider Ready event on Nov. 13 and the Preschool Open House on Oct. 30.

“We believe that our school district serves as the center of our community, and as such, we work to build strong connections with district families and respond to their needs,” Ocean City Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kathleen Taylor said. “Offering a full day preschool program to our community has been a long-standing goal of mine and also of the School Board. Therefore, receiving this PEEA funding to expand our preschool programming to even more families in our district is a dream realized for us. By making full day preschool accessible, we are helping to set our students up for bright futures.”

The district’s preschool plan includes the implementation of standards and curriculum; valid measures of assessment that incorporate early literacy, mathematical and social-emotional learning; continuous training and improvement efforts for teachers and programming; and a solid foundation to build even stronger community and family partnerships.

The district anticipates having a focus on diverse language learners (DLL’s) as approximately 18 percent of Ocean City Primary School students have a home language other than English.

“We are excited about this new program and what it means to our youngest students, and therefore, we hope to reach every parent of a preschool-aged child with the news of our new program. We will then adapt the program to best support our enrollees,” Ocean City Primary School Principal Cathy Smith said. “We look forward to welcoming our newest students to our Primary School family.”

Patch file photo by Doug Bergen