BY DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

 

As construction finishes at a new Warren Elementary, Warren County Public Schools has taken a step forward in converting the current Warren Elementary into a 600-student preschool for the fall preschool semester.

The WCPS Board of Education approved construction documents for the conversion at its special meeting Monday. It enables WCPS to put the project out for bid, which Chief Financial Officer Chris McIntyre expects to cost roughly $3 million, including $2.5 million in construction costs, “give or take.”

Construction will take place in the roughly 12 weeks following this semester’s end. There’ll be additional time to get things moved in; WCPS is aiming to open the preschool following Labor Day weekend.

“This is a large feat to pull off in a short amount of time, but we feel confident in working with our construction manager and architect that that’s a doable time frame,” McIntyre said.

It’ll have a cap of at least around 600 preschoolers, according to WCPS Assistant Superintendent Sarah Johnson and McIntyre.

WCPS plans to move around 500 preschool students into this new learning academy, the two said.

When it opens, around a third of attendees will include children from WCPS’s Early Learning Academy at Western Kentucky University’s South Campus, according to estimates from McIntyre and Johnson. With a lease that expires June 30, the South Campus academy, with a capacity of 200 preschool students, houses preschool classes that’d otherwise be held across five elementary schools, according to WCPS.

The remaining students at the new center will come from six to eight of WCPS’s 15 elementary schools, Johnson said. These schools have up to four preschool classes each, McIntyre said.

WCPS will fill the affected elementary schools’ vacated spots with K-6 students due to Warren County’s growth, Johnson said.

The district will outfit the emptied elementary school classrooms by the fall semester based on their specific needs, McIntyre said. That’ll solely entail moving preschool furniture from the emptied elementary school classrooms into the upcoming preschool and ordering new furniture for the emptied classrooms, he said.

WCPS is still deciding which schools will have their preschool classes transferred to the new center. One factor, Johnson said, is determining which students the transportation department can take to and from the new facility. Another, she added, is figuring out which elementary schools would most benefit from placing K-6 students in the emptied preschool spots.

Johnson said she’s excited the academy will cater to 3- and 4-year-olds while enabling collaboration among its numerous preschool teachers.

“When I think about all the collaboration that can take place amongst 30 teachers – creating lessons together, discussing what’s working, how can we improve – this is very exciting for helping grow student achievement,” she said.

It’ll also be WCPS’s intake center for all preschool kids, where they’ll get screened to see which services they qualify for, McIntyre added.

WCPS will convert the cafeteria into 40% indoor playground and 60% a cafe area for kids, McIntyre said.

It’ll have several outdoor playgrounds as well, Johnson said – which McIntyre said will include preschool equipment and get new paint.

WCPS is also looking at dedicating a room specifically to occupational therapy and physical therapy as well as an area for speech pathology, Johnson said. She added that the district is planning to include ramps, pulleys and other equipment to work with students who need those services.

“Everything’s in the planning stages, but we are certainly hoping that’ll be one of the benefits to having 500 early learners in one place,” she said.

It also, McIntyre said, would reduce a loss of travel time from requiring specialists to travel from preschool to preschool.

WCPS will also provide the center new flooring and convert a couple classrooms to male and female bathrooms, McIntyre said.

Also at the special meeting:

The WCPS Board of Education approved the school system’s draft budget. It precedes the May tentative budget, a guiding document enabling WCPS to prepare for the next year.

This time, the draft budget is overall a rolled version of the current working budget due to key unknowns, McIntyre said. These, he said, include the potential for legislation from the General Assembly and the Kentucky Department of Education’s recently reported prediction that there’ll be a $40 million shortfall in the commonwealth’s foundational K-12 funding program, Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK).

“At this point in time, we don’t know of any large material changes for (next year’s) budget,” he said. “Therefore, you have a rolled copy of the working budget, with the exception of Fund 2, which is grants, and fund 21 (the Special Revenue District Activity Fund).”

The district will home in on its tentative budget in May for major shifts or changes or material increases in expenditures or revenue, he said.

“I like to approach it from the standpoint of looking at the fiscal health of the district and how we’ve performed the last few years to say that we’re in a good spot fiscally, that we’re managing our expenses and our revenue,” he said. “But obviously, things can change as legislators make decisions or implement additional rules, regulations that impact us, and that can change (because) if there’s not enough money allocated to SEEK, then we’ll get hit on that, too.”