The Pembroke
Public Schools Integrated Preschool program became a reality after
Pembroke's break-up from the Silver Lake Regional School District
last year. Originally a part of the Silver Lake program in
Kingston, Pembroke's own integrated preschool program is now
housed in North Pembroke Elementary School.
With 65 to 70
three and four-year-olds in the program, the educational goal is
to integrate special needs students with role-model peers, parent
Chantelle Kavka said. Kavka, whose older daughter has Down
syndrome, explained that her daughter had been moved into the
preschool program from Early Intervention at the time she turned
three.
Kavka's
daughter completed her two years in the integrated preschool
program, and now attends the special education program at
Bryantville Elementary. Her younger son is now in the program, one
of the three-year-old role model peers. Role model peers are
chosen for the program by lottery.
Each classroom
in the program has eight role model peers and seven students who
are academically challenged. The special needs students'
transition into the program on the day they turn three, Kavka
said.
So, while the
role model peers begin the preschool in September, special needs
preschoolers are continually moving into the program from Early
Intervention throughout the school year. "By the end of the year,
there are seven special needs students in the class," she
explained.
Students can
attend the program two or four days a week, depending on a
parent's choice. Each classroom in the integrated preschool has
three teachers and at least one aide, and the three-year-old
students attend class in the morning, those who are four go in the
afternoon.
For students
with special needs, the program's staff includes a speech
therapist, physical therapist, and occupational therapist.
"I think it's
a wonderful program - in my opinion, inclusion (of special needs
students) is the way to go," Kavka noted. "First of all, everyone
is a child and differences are no more than any other - than
whether a child has blue or green eyes. And my daughter was able
to learn from her role model peers."
"It's a
phenomenal program and we're very lucky - on the special needs
side," she continues. "I was a wreck about sending Kelly to
school, and I feel so fortunate to be a part of this community."
Also feeling
very fortunate is Kimberly Kibbe, whose 3-1/2 year old daughter
Skylar was chosen to attend the program in September as a role
model peer. Once chosen by lottery for the three-year-old program,
the student automatically moves up to the next class as a
four-year-old.
"It's really
great - they're side by side working together," Kibbe said. "Now,
my daughter's new best friend has Down syndrome."
As students in
the integrated preschool come from all three of Pembroke's
elementary school districts, they do not benefit from each
school's PTO fundraising, monies raised to enhance the students'
learning with enrichment programs. So last year, a group of
parents organized Parents for Preschool, a group that meets
monthly in the North Pembroke library.
The goal of
this fundraising effort is to be able to offer enrichment
programs, "or anything the teachers or students need that is not
covered in the budget," Kavka said. One of the group's fall
fundraising events was to create some crafts to be sold during
North Pembroke's Craft Fair in November.
"Teachers
worked with the children to make crafts," Kibbe said. "Some
parents got involved, but with the teachers involved it was really
great."
Kibbe is now
chairing the group's next big fundraising event, a yard sale/flea
market to be held on the town green on Sunday, April 10. "We
brainstormed ideas, and this will be our biggest fundraiser for
the year," she noted.
Date published: 2/9/2005
- Pembroke Mariner
