Pre-K Arts Academy salvaged

 

 

Halifax County School Board took a separate vote after budget deliberations Thursday night to spare the pre-K Arts Academy. Director of Federal Programs Valdivia Marshall had told The Prizery community arts center, which hosts the program, that dwindling federal funds would not pay for the $21,600 in teachers’ salaries, but that she

was scrambling to find a grant or other underwriting to keep it going. Some Trustees had not known the program was in jeopardy until less than a week before Thursday’s final budget vote. Trustee Joe Gasperini made a motion to “make sure we keep the pre-K arts program the same.” “We’ll bring it back,” affirmed Superintendent Paul Stapleton, but said that, once federal funding for the coming year is nailed down, keeping the Arts Academy for the little ones could mean losing a federally funded elementary reading coach, for example. Stapleton recommended not

using non-federal monies to pay for the program. Like most arts programs, it is not mandatory. Now in its third year, the Arts Academy buses more than 200 four-year-olds (many of them at-risk or disadvantaged) to The Prizery

one morning a week for art, music and music. Federal funds pay the teachers, but transportation costs from students’ home schools is paid by non-federal funds. The Prizery donates use of the building. The vote was unanimous.

Trustee Stuart Comer called the program “vital.” “I’m 100 percent for that,” he said. Gasperini said he believes the program is a good investment because the early-childhood training may keep students out of expensive special-ed

as they mature.