SCHOOLS

Bellmore to offer pre-K at Reinhard

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Bellmore’s Charles A. Reinhard Early Childhood Center will welcome 4-year-olds to its “Rising Star” family next year when the district launches an in-house prekindergarten program in 2015-16.

In the past, Bellmore School District residents have been able to enroll their children in a state-funded pre-kindergarten program; their children were placed in nursery schools across the area. Next year, though, 72 children will be able to attend prekindergarten at Reinhard, which houses Bellmore’s kindergarten, first- and second-grade classes.

Bellmore Superintendent Dr. Joseph Famularo announced the program’s launch at the March Board of Education meeting. Classes will be two and half hours per day, Monday through Friday, for children who will be four years old by Dec. 1. There will be four sections taught by two teachers: two morning sessions (9:10-11:40 a.m.) and two afternoon sessions (1-3:30 p.m.). Each will have 18 children.

“This program will be a great addition to our highly regarded early-childhood center,” he said. “[It] will be one of only a handful of in-district prekindergarten programs in the area.”

The program will be funded by a New York State Education Department grant, as well as savings realized from staff reallocations and retirements. Thus, the program will not increase property taxes. Reinhard Principal Patricia Castine and Assistant Principal Elise Cahill will oversee the program, and New York State-certified teachers who are Bellmore School District employees will teach the classes.

The district will continue to run the Bellmore-Nassau County special-education prekindergarten program for students who qualify for services. The program has been at Reinhard for 37 years.

The new prekindergarten program aligns with the district’s commitment to early intervention, Famularo said. In launching the program, he noted, the district will be able to create an aligned pre-K to second-grade curriculum, easing the transition to kindergarten and allowing children to form positive peer relationships from an early age.

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