Youngstown schools, head start offering full-day kindergarten at city grade schools

YOUNGSTOWN

A half-day goes full for the Youngstown School District preschool program.

The city schools and Alta Head Start are collaborating to offer all-day, five-day per week, preschool at its elementary school buildings. Before this, the district offered only a half-day program, four days a week. The full-day preschool is underway.

Krish Mohip, schools chief executive officer, said, “The children get to spend more time learning about and getting prepared for school and for the way a school day is structured. They learn from a young age how to work collaboratively.”

The preschool is available for 3- to 5-year-olds who live within the school district. There is no cost to families for their children to attend. State funding allowed the district to expand the program.

The 22 preschool classrooms are located in Choffin Career and Technical Center, Harding, Martin Luther King, Paul C. Bunn, William Holmes McGuffey, Williamson and Taft elementary schools, and at Wilson Programs of Progress.

The collaboration allows each class to have two qualified teachers and an educational assistant.

Read more about the program in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.