BY LINDSAY VANHULLE
lvanhulle@record-eagle.com
September 10, 2008 12:00 am TRAVERSE CITY -- Administrators with Traverse City Area Public Schools cut the district's Young Fives program after just a week of classes, the second early childhood program eliminated this fall. A tuition-based preschool program replaced it at Long Lake Elementary. Staff expected 15 students on the first day of school Sept. 2, enough to sustain it, but only 10 were enrolled and just nine attended, said Jame McCall, TCAPS' executive director of elementary and special education. Parents were informed of the possible change by the second day of school, and the official decision came Sept. 5. The preschool program began Monday, but Young Fives students can continue to attend the Long Lake program until they find other alternatives, McCall said. The program's teacher also was reassigned to a new kindergarten section at Courtade Elementary, McCall said. Parents can choose tuition-based preschool programs, as well as Montessori and traditional kindergarten classes, McCall said. Young Fives students are old enough to enroll in kindergarten, but have later birthdays than their classmates. Parents often choose the tuition-free program because they don't think their children are ready for kindergarten. Jennifer Wohlfert recently enrolled her daughter Emily, who will turn 5 in November, in the Traverse City Cooperative Preschool. Wohlfert, a teacher at Long Lake, said she would like to see the program mentioned as another option for parents during kindergarten round-up activities next year, and "to bring it back centrally located." Angela Sides, the district's director of early childhood and special education, replaced former director Cheryl Bloomquist this summer. She was part of the decisions to cancel both Young Fives and the preschool Chinese immersion program, also citing low enrollment. She did not return phone calls seeking comment. A preschool program at Long Lake, until now without one, could help offset waiting lists at nearby Westwoods and Willow Hill elementary schools, as well as at Eastern Elementary, McCall said. Low enrollment is partly to blame, said McCall, who added that families might be dissuaded by the fact that there is no busing for Young Fives. But she said staff chose to cut it, rather than seek additional families this year, because "parents make that decision before school starts." "I'm confident that that preschool program will fill," McCall said. "It's a community need."
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