DALTON, Mass. — The Central Berkshire Regional School District School Committee started a discussion on adding a preschool to Wahconah Regional High School during its meeting last week. 

 

This addition would address feedback that the district has received from community members regarding the accessibility of its other preschool programs and provide more internship opportunities to Wahconah students. 

 

The district's preschool program is very healthy and there are times when families are turned away and added to the waitlist because there isn’t enough room in the program, Superintendent Leslie Blake-Davis said. Currently, Kittredge Elementary School only has three spaces available. 

 

The preschools are tuition based and are valued by the community, she said. Based on some of the community feedback received, the preschools are not as accessible to families in Dalton, Cummington, and Windsor. 

 

With that in mind, in addition to the popularity of the program, Blake-Davis wanted to start a conversation with the committee to consider adding a preschool at Wahconah.

 

This is not a new concept, Blake-Davis said, as there are similar programs at other schools, including Taconic High School in Pittsfield. 

 

One School Committee member asked what the community thinks about the prospect of adding a preschool to the high school.

 

"I think the two advantages would be accessibility to some of our other towns and I think building a relationship with our older students, but as you said, that's a component to consider. I have not brought this forward to the community to be honest with you," Blake-Davis said. 

 

"I don't want to bring it forward to the community right now. I would absolutely have to have approval from [Massachusetts School Building Authority] and then I would have to have approval from the School Committee. So, I wouldn't want to bring something forward to the School Committee that starts traveling as information that this is happening without those two things in place."

 

The only way this could be possible is if the committee votes in favor of it and if it gets approval from the MSBA. 

 

Blake-Davis said she has received guidance on this prospect from DRA Architects and Skanska, who worked on the high school project, because she is still in regular contact with them due to the track. 

 

The MSBA sked for some documentation and Blake-Davis has been in conversation with them. 

 

The district does have funding set aside for a construction of a preschool, if approved, including rural aid funds, Director of Finance and Operations Gregory Boino said. The only concern with rural aid funds is that it needs to be spent by June 30. 

 

The reason the district needs approval from MSBA is so that it does not mess up the reimbursement for the high school because it changes the district's school education plan, School Committee Chair Richard Peters said. This would not extend the building project. 

 

Once the district is reimbursed the last 5 percent after the audit, it will have more freedom to use the building so this conversation can be postponed. 

 

Wahconah has two rooms that could be considered for this program because they are not being utilized to the extent that they thought, Blake-Davis said. 

 

One of the rooms currently houses the occupational and physical therapy course that has only a couple students and the other room is a resource room for special education students. 

 

The district currently has two resource rooms, one small and one large, that are not connected so it would be "easy" to schedule the resource students in the larger resource room, Blake-Davis said. 

 

There is already an entrance to the outside but the project would require some construction such as the removal of a wall and putting in a little bathroom. 

 

The district would make sure that they had the proper square footage to comply with the National Association for Early Childhood Education requirements. 

 

All of the district's preschools have one adult and two teaching assistants. The proposed preschool at Wahconah would be called an integrated preschool so it would have eight peer role models and seven students who are identified as having special needs.

 

One committee member asked if they had considered Nessacus Regional Middle School.

 

The concern regarding the space at Nessacus is that it is at the back of the building while the Wahconah already has an entrance and a fenced area so the children can play, Blake-Davis said.