CLARKESVILLE – Habersham County has delayed the start of school for its youngest students, those in the pre-k program, by 10 days.
During Thursday afternoon’s board of education work session, Director of Elementary Schools Rhonda Andrews told the board the reasons for that decision.
“We met this week with our state pre-k consultant for our region and they have given us the grace to be able to delay the start of pre-k,” Andrews said. “It does not have to begin the first day we begin with our k-5 students.”
Andrews said the principals of the county’s eight elementary schools feel good about the move.
“There are a lot of changes that are going to have to be made in the pre-k classrooms to allow for more space,” Andrews said. “Our pre-k classes will be our largest classes. There are 22 kids in a classroom with two adults. The state unfortunately did not reduce the number of students in a pre-k room, so to get your full funding you have to have those 22 kids in there.”
Andrews said the extra time will give teachers an opportunity to adjust to a new pre-k teaching model, including rewriting lesson plans and restructuring their school day, to declutter classrooms, and to meet with parents about the changes taking place.
“Our pre-k parents, you can understand, are our most nervous parents,” Andrews said. “They’re sending their babies to school for the first time. This year’s going to be a little different since we’re not allowing parents to come down to the classroom every day. They normally walk their children down on a daily basis, some of them all year long, so we want to give those pre-k teachers time to spend meeting with those families for longer than what we would do normally in a k-5 situation.”
Andrews initially told the board pre-k students will start 10 days after school starts on Aug. 21.
“First of all, I fully support delaying pre-k by 10 days for all the reasons Rhonda just shared, this being the first experience for many of the parents and certainly for these pre-k students,” Superintendent Matthew Cooper told the board. “Rhonda said 10 days from Aug. 21. What I would say is 10 days from whenever the first day of school is for all other students. As the board knows, we are going to have a discussion Monday at the regular meeting about the first day of school and I will be sharing some information in the superintendent’s report. Just like I said back on July 16, everything is subject to change with regards to going back to school, whether it’s our reopening plan, the virtual option, the first day of school. As of right now, the first day of school is Aug. 21.”
Monday night’s board of education meeting will be held at 6 p.m., but due to limited space the public can view the meeting live on the system website, www.habershamschools.com.
