Elimination of Mt. Hope's Purple Playschool Leaves Void in Curriculum

At the elimination of a beloved program has saddened some students and parents. The Purple Playschool, part of the child development curriculum, was cut this year after an audit last spring raised a number of questions.

The Purple Playschool was founded over twenty years ago and had been administered for the past 12 years by Laurel Thayer, a teacher in Family and Consumer Sciences.  As part of the program, Bristol parents dropped their 3 to 5 year-old tots off to the high school twice a week allowing students to work one-on-one with the children to make observations and understand a variety of developmental milestones.

The program had been receiving money from a Perkins grant. When the state did an audit of Perkins-funded programs last spring the findings, according to Superintendent Melinda Thies, were “not favorable.” Thies said the audit cited lack of certification under the new regulations for early childcare programs, a space that was not up to OSHA standards and no “articulation program” to transition the students onto a related career path.

Thayer, however, believes a big part of the problem is that the original grant misrepresented the program and, thus, held it to standards beyond its scope.

“The way the grant was written made it look like I had a career development program under a technical school instead of under a comprehensive public school,” she said.

According to Thayer, she and Superintendent Thies as well as Principal Rebello met over the summer to discuss the program. While decisions were being made, Thayer enrolled in school to complete the four classes needed for certification. Come May, she will be fully certified under the state's current guidelines. That gesture, however, was not enough for the program to be reinstated.

Thies has recommended instead that the students be funneled to outside child care programs in the community. She says the decision was not just based on the audit findings, but also took into consideration the larger strategic plan that calls for students to have “real world” experience.

“If our high school students need a more formalized internship they can do that out in the community in a licensed and certified preschool,” Thies said. “We need to look beyond what we have done in the past and think outside the box. There may be other ways to provide a quality program for the students.”

Thayer, however, says inquiries made by Diane Verdolotti in the Business Department revealed that local childcare programs could only accommodate nine of the forty child development students. She said it also means that transportation has to be provided for students to multiple sites and that travel time would significantly reduce hands-on time spent with children.

Seniors Alicia Pimental and Taryn Lagarto were among the child development students disappointed by the decision. Both are past participants of the Purple Playschool.

“I learned a lot about some kids and how if they’re delayed it’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Lagarto said. “I’m going to study Special Education. I learned not all kids are going into Special Education programs because they’re delayed. Sometimes they catch up.”

Pimental, who wants to be a Pediatric Nurse said, “we loved working with the kids. We got to know their personalities and come up with age appropriate activities.”

Thayer, who has received letters of support from parents in the community, hopes the administration will reconsider their decision and reinstate the program.

“It’s a void in the curriculum this year,” she said. “The students were expecting the opportunity to learn about children hands-on and not through a textbook. There’s so much more they could be learning, but they’re not because the program’s not here.”