BELLE— With only three months of the 2021-22 school district left to go, the Maries County R-2 Board of Education on Feb. 22 received reports from the Early Childhood Education Program and Parents As Teachers.

Caryl Koch teaches the Early Childhood Education Program located at the Belle Elementary School (BHS). The program offers a morning and afternoon class. Students are signed up on a first-come, first-serve basis by parents contacting the BHS office and requesting their child be added to the list.

“Our Early Childhood Program has a multi-age classroom, and provides educational opportunities for children between the ages of three-years-old and five-years-old,” Koch said in a letter to the board of education.

The half-a-day program consists of both a morning session and an afternoon session that accommodates 15 children each.

“We feel this grants us the opportunity for a good beginning with 30 families, helping to establish a strong, personal, and positive educational relationship with our school,” Koch said.

Koch’s preschool classes were moved from a separate location near the Administration Building to inside BHS in the kindergarten hallway two years ago.

“We have enjoyed the move into the elementary building,” Koch said. “Our play yard is in a much safer location for our children. Our classroom is far more spacious and with five big windows to let in natural light. Our students make new friendships and become familiar with the elementary setting as well as teachers and staff.”

Koch said she feels the positive assets of the elementary school will only help to make the transition from preschool to kindergarten easier and more productive.

They continue to work on the preschool curriculum. Preschool teachers have worked with Alice Taylor, curriculum director at Maries R-2, over the past two years to write curriculum for both English Language Arts and math, as well as assessments. Their next goal is to complete a pacing guide and bring this grade level up to the same standard as all other grade levels in the district.

“There are different ways to measure success,” Koch said. “We measure success as our students meet learning goals. We measure success as we observe our students gain confidence in expressing needs, wants and interest in learning new things in a school setting.”

Koch said that because the classroom includes multiple age levels, children between the ages of three and five-years-old, students can be in the program for two consecutive years.

“Over the last seven years, we have had one-hundred percent of our younger students return for a second year. Often the eldest child in the family is enrolled first,” Koch said. “On so many occasions parents will say something like ‘wait until you get the next one! He is completely different from his older brother!’ We laugh together, but the fact that such a positive relationship has been established and parents are already thinking of our program to help their younger children is a great measure of success for us.”

The district has so far been able to maintain the program tuition-free.

“We are thankful for our Early Childhood Program and educational opportunities it provides for our youngest learners,” Koch said.

For children who are either too young or don’t have a place in the preschool program, the district assists with Parents as Teachers (PAT) with educator Patty Durbin.

According to Durbin’s report, Parents as Teachers is a program that celebrates parents as their child’s first teacher. Through the program, the parent educator enters a partnership with the parents or guardians to best prepare their child for kindergarten.

“Each month families receive at least one visit either in their home, at school or a park at a time that works best for the families whether that be during the day or evening,” Durbin said. “We work on goals for the families, parents or children, discuss concerns and needs of the parents and families and observe the children for developing milestones.”

PAT focuses largely on developmentally appropriate activities and expectations for each child, as well as literacy.

“Books are loaned and read at most visits to encourage reading in the home,” Durbin said.

The four goals of PAT are: 

Increase parent knowledge of early childhood development and improve parenting practices.

Provide early detection of developmental delays and health issues.

Prevent child abuse and neglect.

Increase children’s school readiness and school success.

“These goals are accomplished by entering a partnership with parents and caregivers,” Durbin said.

The program also strives to offer group connections through group meetings that meet once a month. Families are encouraged to attend as often as possible.

“Since 2020, we have been meeting either in large, open spaces such as the elementary cafeteria or park or we have been doing a porch drop-off activity,” she said. “If we are unable to meet in-person, the families that chose to participate get the directions and supplies for the same activity and the families complete this activity at home together.”

In group connections, the teachers try to incorporate some of the following:

Family activities - events that focus primarily on parent-child interaction to encourage learning and promote development.

Presentation - a parent, educator, supervisor, or member of the community provides knowledge on a particular issue or development topic using multimedia, group discussion, and panel discussions to engage participants.

On-going group - small groups of parents facing similar issues coming together in multiple sessions that may have a particular focus. Childcare is sometimes required for a portion of the session, while another portion allows for parent-child interaction.

Community events - may be hosted by a program or provide organized outings to build greater community awareness.

“In the 2020-21 school year, we served 28 families and 43 children,” Durbin reported. “Each of those children received at least one vision, hearing, developmental and social/emotional screening. Referrals were made to ECSE, First Steps, optometrist or physician if necessary.”

Durbin informed the board of education that she applied for and received a $500 grant this year.

“This year I applied for a grant through the Missouri Retired Teachers Association and won a $500 grant through PEERS Maggie Elder Grant,” she said. “The grant is begging used to purchase materials for a toy lending library for families in our district.”

Items purchased for the library will help parents with developmentally appropriate activities to help prepare children for school. Thus far, blocks puzzles and books have been loaned to local families in the program.