By Alyssa Harper
Westbury School District officials recently announced they are expanding their universal pre-kindergarten program to give parents a full-day option in addition to the half-day program.
At a March 11 Board of Education meeting, Robin Barnett, assistant superintendent for elementary curriculum and instruction, reviewed changes to the district’s universal pre-K program. The program is available to all families with children who will be 4 years old on or before Dec. 1. It offers half-day seats for children in the morning or afternoon. The district has 196.5 full-day seats and 285 half-day seats.
Parents can apply on the Westbury School District website or by clicking here. When filling out the application, parents can select a preference for full-day or half-day placement. Parents can also mix days throughout the week. Once an application is submitted, parents must schedule an appointment with Margie Clifton, the district registrar.
After that appointment, families will be entered in a lottery system to determine what spot they receive in the program. “The lottery is required by New York State law, so we will be doing a live lottery where everyone will get an assignment and you’ll be pulled on a digital spiral to determine what your placement is,” Barnett said.
The district also opened bids for requests for proposals from community-based organizations to offer activities to children enrolled in the program. RFP applications closed March 8.
“The committee is now currently reviewing those RFP bids so that we can determine which community-based organizations we’ll be able to partner with, as we look forward to providing this new and reinvigorated universal pre-K program for the upcoming 2025-26 school year,” Barnett said.
Board Trustee Pedro Quintanilla had questions about changes made to the universal pre-K program, in particular the process of choosing which community organizations to partner with. “Can you talk about the structure of the program to give the community comfort knowing that we’re going to be in full oversight of that program and the standards that we’re going to use for that program,” Quintanilla asked.
Barnett assured the community that all organizations whose RFPs are approved will have their activity take place at a facility owned and operated by the Westbury School District or off site within Westbury.
“We’ll have regular access to our sites. We’ll have ongoing communication with all of our program directors, be they on-site or off-site, and they will be held to the same rigorous standard of curriculum and instruction,” Barnett said.
School Superintendent Dr. Tahira Dupree Chase supported Barnett in her explanation of the process to apply for the universal pre-K program. “Thank you for your thorough description of what I believe to be a program of promise in our school district, and I believe our community knows how important it is to have an exceptional early-childhood program that is the foundation for learning and preparing our scholars for kindergarten and first grade,” Chase said.
The final day to meet with the district registrar’s office for a one-on-one appointment regarding the program was March 28. If parents missed the deadline to register for the lottery, they may still apply but will be placed on a waitlist. Parents who have been placed in the lottery system will be notified about their spot placement beginning May 9.
