With big changes afoot in how elementary students are taught during the 2014-15 school year, one Warren County school is adding a new grade level.
Beechwood Elementary has begun a pre-kindergarten program, the third in the district.
Tamika Billings, principal of Beechwood Elementary said that she is very thankful for the program.
“I know that it will provide the students the ability to obtain the knowledge from the teachers to be successful leaders and successful students,” she said.
Sherman Avenue and Dana Road elementary schools already have established pre-k programs.
Curtis Ross, the principal of Sherman Avenue, said funding limits the availability of pre-k programs districtwide.
Students are chosen randomly by the district for participation in a lottery-type selection process.
Sherrie Williams, Dana Road’s principal, said children in the classes come from any of the south zones. They do not have to be in a particular school zone to attend pre-k.
“They are chosen by the district at random,” Williams said.
Despite new state mandates — including a law declaring students must be reading at grade-level by the third grade to advance to the next one — the Mississippi Legislature has not provided funding for universal pre-k.
That means it is up to individual districts to provide the funding for any educational programming before kindergarten.
“The district is paying for the program out of pocket, and that’s probably why they can’t offer it to every four-year old,” Williams said.

Despite that, Williams said it is their goal to offer the best educational opportunity they can to the students that do enroll in the pre-k.
Currently, Dana road and Sherman Ave have two pre-k programs with approximately 20 children in each class.
The program, Ross said, focuses on literacy and preparing students for kindergarten.
“This program is really good for students. It keeps them from falling behind,” he said.
Having a year of additional instruction and a classroom environment, Ross said, gives students an added boost.
“There’s always this catch-up growth we have to fight. The pre-k program is a way that we can allow the students to start at a level playing field,” he said.  “You have to compete. You have to compete all over the state.”
Ross said the program is also needed to help students jump the hurdle of the third-grade reading gate as well. The law, passed in 2012, only allows students reading at grade-level to advance to the fourth grade. In 2013, about 53 percent of Mississippi’s third-graders read at grade-level.
After a semester in pre-K, students are given a test to determine where they are in the learning process, Ross said.
“The way success is measured is that we will give them a readiness test in the spring. That will pretty much let us know where they’re starting,” Ross said. “
The test will asses how much the student has advanced and what skills they need to work on in order to be properly prepared for kindergarten.
Williams said the program has been extremely beneficial to the children. She said she has noticed significant differences in children who have participated in pre-k and those that have not.
“There are a couple of big differences and one is academically. They tend to be extremely advances and do very well in kindergarten,” she said.
The children are also able to acclimate back to the school environment easily as opposed to children arriving for the first time, Williams said.
“They’ve already been here. They’re not afraid. We don’t have the issue of them being brand new,” she said. “They know the rules. They know the expectations.”
Billings said the impact of pre-k is obvious to many educators.
“I noticed the difference among behavior and academics. Students are learning new things each day. They’re eager to learn,” she said.
Paula Johnson, assistant superintendent of the VWSD, said she is eager to see the results of a third pre-k program in the district.
“We are excited to offer different opportunities like this to students,” Johnson said.