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Grant money will bring preschool to Millboro
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
WARM SPRINGS - Bath County schools have received a grant to pay for equipment and first-year operating expenses for a full preschool for at-risk four-year-olds at Millboro Elementary School.
The program at MES will be the same as the one now offered at Valley Elementary School, Sue Hirsh, director of instruction and personnel, told supervisors Tuesday.
Supervisors authorized county administrator Bonnie Johnson to sign a memorandum of understanding so the school system can begin receiving money from the grant.
The Virginia Preschool Pilot Initiative program will provide $69,380 for the Millboro program. The county will use the existing preschool teacher and aide as an in-kind match for the grant, said school superintendent Dr. David Smith.
"We will have programs of equal nature on both sides of the mountain," Smith said.
Students currently bused from the eastern part of the county will attend MES, Smith explained.
Up to 35 students will be served at MES under the new program, Hirsh said. The new program will eliminate the preschool bus, she added.
The start-up part of the grant totals $50,000. This money will be received in one lump sum, Smith said. The money will be used to buy classroom equipment such as cubicles and cots, along with instructional materials.
The school will also purchase a vehicle and upgrade playground equipment at MES with part of the start up money. The vehicle, playground upgrade, and other grant purchases will be county property and remain with the system after the year is over, said Smith.
Steve Troxell, director of the Shenandoah Valley Head Start Consortium, told the board there had been no expansion of the Head Start program at the federal level since 2000.
This grant, he said, is part of the governor's "Start Strong Concept." Only 11 school systems in the state, many private, received grant money.
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