Catholic schools, public school districts cooperate to provide more pre-K classes

When school begins in September, many children who previously would not have been able to will have the opportunity to experience pre-kindergarten due to the collaboration between local Catholic elementary schools and public school districts.

St. Clement's Regional Catholic School in Saratoga Springs, and Immaculate Conception School and St. Anthony's School, both in Schenectady, were awarded contracts for Universal Pre-Kindergarten programs from the Saratoga Central School District and the Schenectady City School District.

Universal Pre-kindergarten is a New York State initiative that makes pre-K programs available to children of all socio-economic backgrounds.

How it works

The Catholic schools will provide classroom space and staffing while the public school districts provide funding and find children eligible for the program.

There will be both a morning and afternoon session of the program at St. Clement's. Each session will meet for two-and-a-half hours a day for five days a week. Each session will have 11 children, a teacher and a teacher's aide, said Thaddeus Obloy, principal of St. Clement's.

BY 2003, the state would like to have pre-kindergarten available to all children, said Warren Gemmill, assistant superintendent for the Saratoga Central School District.

"The goal is to try to better prepare children for school," he said. "It's to give them the readiness skills for kindergarten."

Care with religion

Since the program is funded by the government, religion will not be taught, prayers won't be said and religious items will be removed from a classroom while it is being used for Universal Pre-kindergarten.

St. Clement's and Immaculate Conception will still offer their own pre-K programs that will include religious instruction, prayers and religious symbols in the classroom. (Information on St. Anthony's program was not available.)

The removal of religious items from the classroom concerned some St. Clement's parents; but according to the superintendent of schools for the Albany Diocese, the removal doesn't affect the Catholic identity of the school.

"Essentially, that doesn't take away from the Catholic identity," said Sister Mary Jane Herb, IHM. "There will be one classroom without religious symbols. The building still will have symbols, and the religion curriculum remains. The culture and values of St. Clement's will still be evident in the building."

Keeping the faith

Dr. Obloy said the Catholic identity of the school is rooted in the people who make up the school community, not in the religious symbols.

According to Sister Jane, the three schools aren't the first Catholic schools in the Diocese to remove religious items in order to participate in a governmental program.

"We've participated in federal programs before," she said. "For the Title 1 [remediation] programs in our schools, we've removed religious symbols. Our students have benefitted from this program quite well."

Meeting its mission

Being the site for Saratoga's Universal Pre-kindergarten program offers St. Clement's another opportunity to meet the needs of children, Dr. Obloy said.

"It still fits in with the mission of the school," Dr. Obloy explained. "Now we're reaching out into the greater community to offer a formal educational experience prior to kindergarten. We're here to serve kids. We want to give them the best services we can."

Marjorie Edgar, principal of Immaculate Conception School, also sees the program as "a service to the community. It's an opportunity to provide a good program to children who wouldn't have had the chance. We have years of experience offering pre-K."

Cooperation

At a time when there is often animosity between public school districts and Catholic schools, these Catholic schools and public districts are enjoying a positive working relationship.

Mrs. Edgar called the relationship between Immaculate Conception and the Schenectady City School District "great. They've been most helpful. We have a very fine relationship."

Children are at the core of the relationship between St. Clement's and the Saratoga Central School District. "For the most part, students at St. Clement's are district residents," Dr. Gemmill said. "There is a willingness to make it successful for the children."

Dr. Obloy pointed out that the relationship between the school and the district has existed for a while. The Saratoga Central School District began working with St. Clement's approximately nine years ago so that a girl with severe learning disabilities could attend the school. The district has also worked well with the school in providing such required services as busing, remediation and nursing.

Working together

St. Clement's school board president Jane Corrou is pleased with the relationship between the district and the Catholic school.

"Our relationship with the district has been wonderful," she said. "In the early 1990s, we had some bus problems, and they ironed them out immediately. They have been more than gracious."

This year, St. Clement's will have additional nursing services as well as on-site math and reading remediation. That means that students entitled to remediation will spend more time in the classroom. Previously, they had to be transported during the school day from St. Clement's to a local public school.

The space used for remediation will also have its religious items removed, but Dr. Obloy said it should be possible to use the same space for the Universal Pre-kindergarten program and the remediation program, limiting the number of rooms without such symbols.

Space program

Space has been a concern as St. Clement's has planned for the addition of the pre-K program. Last year, the school moved its art program into a classroom. In previous years, it was located on the school stage. In order to allow art to continue in its own classroom, Dr. Obloy had proposed merging St. Clement's pre-K program with the government-funded one.

"The board had a meeting and parents were concerned because there would be a difference in the program. There would be no prayer before snack and no cross in the classroom," Dr. Obloy explained.

The school decided to keep the two programs separate and are now working out the space issues.

Despite any juggling of space that must be done at St. Clement's, many involved said this is a good opportunity for the school. "It's showing our community involvement," Mrs. Corrou said, "and it's opening up doors for children."

"This will provide children who wouldn't have had the opportunity for pre-school with that opportunity," Sister Jane said. "They have our full support."

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