Explaining closure of Little Braves Preschool

I would like to share some clarifying information about the closure of Little Braves Preschool in La Conner. Skagit/Islands Head Start (SIHS) partnered in quality preschool programming in La Conner for many years. We continue to believe it could be an important contribution to the community.

It may have been unclear to the contributors writing the Weekly News this spring, but the funding model for the Little Braves preschool was never intended to rely solely on SIHS funding. SIHS agreed to provide a contracted amount to the district preschool for each child eligible for and enrolled in Head Start. Not all children served in the Little Braves preschool were Head Start enrolled. One desired benefit in the collaboration was the ability to provide classroom services to children with disabilities in a setting with typically developing children (referred to as a “least restrictive environment”).

SIHS contracted to provide training to La Conner School District staff, along with oversight and support from our leadership team in education, family service, mental health and nutrition. The school district contracted to provide the center manager, Head Start qualified teacher, assistant teacher, classroom aide and staffing to provide the family services mandated by Head Start. The district also agreed to maintain the facility and an appropriate preschool playground. Ms. Fakkema, the principal, served as center manager. The successful operation of the preschool required significant commitment from both parties.

The district struggled (despite their best efforts, I believe) to hire the required, qualified staff. The teaching team who were hired were committed and did wonderful work, but were stretched thin. To support them, SIHS provided a mentor teacher at no additional cost to the district. Because the district was also unable to staff the family support, we provided family service staff at no cost. SIHS also had funding to support the creation of the playground, but there was no progress in that effort.

I believe everyone worked for this collaboration to succeed and hoped the district would be able to grow into the missing supports. However, Ms. Fakkema and I were informed by district fiscal staff that there was little likelihood the district could continue even at the existing funding level.

There also seemed to be a misconception that a cut in funding contributed to the closure. SIHS did have to make the difficult decision to reduce enrollment and reorganize our services; however, the “right-sizing” mentioned was due to difficulties in staffing, not funding cuts. We simply did not have the staffing to serve all of the children we were funded to serve in our three-county area. The decision to leave the Little Braves collaboration was due partially to that reorganizing, but also to the inability of the district to provide their part of the collaboration. What we did have, in abundance, was the emotional support and commitment of SIHS staff, district staff and parents.

I was happy to see Bill Reynold’s article that the district is considering transitional kindergarten. Done with quality, that could provide great support to the children and families of La Conner.

SIHS welcomes any future collaboration that would facilitate the continuation of the robust and high-quality services we are all dedicated to providing. I would like to personally offer my sincere gratitude to the teachers, staff and Ms. Fakkema for their hard work and steadfast efforts to support the success of the preschool.

Mary Ellen Lykins directs SIHS and ECEAP out of Skagit Valley College.