All-day preschool could be offered in city schools

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The city schools interim superintendent hopes to offer all-day preschool next year, but adequate space could be a hurdle.

Stephen Stohla, interim superintendent since last summer, has asked the district leadership team to make a recommendation. The team includes department heads and school principals.

“It will be up to the board to decide what to do,” Stohla said.

He expects information to be presented to the school board at its Feb. 23 meeting.

One possibility is moving sixth-graders out of the elementary school buildings.

“Maybe we’d put the sixth-graders with seventh- and-eighth-graders,” Stohla said. “Maybe there would be a fifth-and-sixth-grade building and a seventh-and-eighth-grade building.”

The district leadership team will devise a plan, he said.

“I want to use the smartest people to do this,” Stohla said. “Maybe with the current structure, it won’t work. I don’t know.”

For the past several years, the district has faced restructuring and realignment as it dealt with financial challenges and shrinking enrollment.

Because of cuts and a change in employee health care, the district has shored up its finances. Enrollment loss also has slowed.

“Understand, I’m 100 percent in favor of all-day preschool,” Stohla said. “If I could make it universal preschool, I would.”

He believes it gives economically disadvantaged children the opportunity to attend preschool like children in wealthier districts.

“I can’t think of anything that could be negative,” Stohla said.

He expects to receive federal or state money to offer the program. The district already offers preschool in the morning and preschool in the afternoon.

“I’m excited about it, and I want to take advantage of that,” Stohla said. “To me it’s a win-win.”

One possibility is moving older grades in the elementary schools into the second floor of Mahoning County High School. The county’s alternative school is housed in the former P. Ross Berry Middle School on the city’s East Side.

“I don’t want to put the preschool into the high-school buildings where we have the room,” Stohla said.

Ideally, children could attend preschool in the same school building where they will attend all-day kindergarten, he said. That would provide a level of comfort for parents and students, the interim superintendent said.