A preschool program in the Philomath School District will be fully funded for 2024-25, Superintendent of Schools Susan Halliday announced last week during a Philomath School Board meeting.
Next Steps Kindergarten Readiness, which is coordinated by Strengthening Rural Families, is available to children born between Sept. 1, 2019 and Aug. 31, 2020 who live in Philomath and will attend kindergarten in the Philomath School District during the 2025-26 school year.
All Philomath students to eat free for next 4 years
Philomath students will eat free at school for the next four years with the local school district’s acceptance into a recently-expanded federal program that aims to decrease childhood hunger while improving health and classroom readiness. “Breakfast and lunch will be free to students,” Philomath Superintendent of Schools Susan Halliday said during Tuesday’s Philomath School Board…
“Next Steps will go with a full-year schedule,” Halliday said. “There won’t be any breaks that we need to take or things like that in anticipation of limited funding. It takes some of the pressure off Strengthening Rural Families and fundraising. It’s just a nice coup for us.”
Halliday said that the Linn-Benton-Lincoln Early Learning Hub was on the receiving end of funding designated for a birth to age 5 preschool program.
“It’s money that they can only spend in the 2024-25 school year,” Halliday said. “So they were looking for projects that were guaranteed to be able to spend in that time frame.”
Halliday credited Paul Smith, Strengthening Rural Families executive director, and Abby Couture, Clemens Primary School principal, for working together on a proposal to the Linn-Benton-Lincoln Early Learning Hub’s governing board.
Halliday said the proposal was submitted in three tiers to be able to request funding for 2024-25 school year in differing amounts.
Preschool opportunities appear to be in demand locally.
“We’ve got a couple of private providers but there really isn’t much preschool opportunity for kids,” she said. “There’s also not much child care — and not that we’re in the business of child care — but there are just limits to where people can put their kids.”
Halliday said that the future sustainability of the Next Steps program will be taken under consideration. She said the program doesn’t want to ramp up to a level that could not continue if funding is not available following this school year.
Prior to the 2023-24 school year, the school district had to scale back its financial contributions to the preschool.
“With our issues with the district contribution to preschool, the doubling of the students last year and the myriad of other things, Next Steps took a hit in terms of they had to shut down for certain periods of time,” Halliday said.
The classes will be provided free with the Linn-Benton-Lincoln Early Learning Hub and Strengthening Rural Families funding.
For parents with an interest, Strengthening Rural Families handles the application process. The organization can be reached at 541-929-2535 to get children on an interest list and for more information.
In other news out of the July 9 meeting:
• The board talked about the implementation of a possible student body fee at Philomath Elementary at the request of that school’s educators. Halliday included Clemens Primary School in the discussion as well. She said such a fee would help cover the costs of things like classroom parties, certain school events like dances and so on. Board member Joe Dealy said that if such a fee was implemented, it should be no more than $10 per student. Halliday said the school district was not going to ask for donations at registration. Board member Ryan Cheeke then suggested bringing in sponsors to raise $2,000, later saying that he would even pledge the money up front and get reimbursed later when sponsor funds come in. The final decision was to consult with Philomath Elementary Principal Eric Beasley on those ideas and move forward with a plan.
• Board chair Rick Wells introduced a discussion on student use of cell phones in Philomath schools to see “if this is something we want to visit or something we don’t want to visit.” Halliday said the cell phone issue has been a recent topic of conversation among administrators. Conversation followed on what other school districts are doing along with the logistical challenges of possibly enforcing a no cell phone policy. In the end, the board directed Halliday to look further into the issue.
• Halliday announced that Philomath students will eat free at school for the next four years with the school district’s acceptance into a recently-expanded federal program that aims to decrease childhood hunger while improving health and classroom readiness. See separate story.
• The board approved a consent agenda that included personnel and staffing adjustments. The district reported resignations from three Philomath High coaches — Travis King (softball), Gary Quandt (boys tennis) and Brittani Bebeiz (volleyball assistant). New hires were reported as Ashley Toombs (athletics administrative assistant), Jolene Latz (temporary library/media) and Ryan Witt (middle school and high school physical education teacher). Coaching contracts were approved for Whitney Rasmussen (PHS volleyball), Shannon Rice (PHS dance assistant), Sarah Peterson (middle school cross-country) and Rose Buckner (PHS volleyball assistant). In addition, out-of-state travel for four teachers to attend a conference in San Antonio was approved, along with meeting minutes for June 20 and annual designations that provide various levels of authorization within the district.
• Wells remained as the chair and Erin Gudge as the vice chair following unanimous votes.
• The board voted to move meetings to the second Thursday of each month beginning in September. The board’s annual work session — formerly known as the board retreat — was scheduled for Oct. 8.
• Wells said the board heard a complaint in executive session against the superintendent but needed more time to consider district policy and reach a decision. A second executive session was scheduled for 7 p.m. July 16.
• The board decided on Aug. 28 for an in-service barbecue for district staff.
• Board member Sandi Hering brought up the status of resuming student representation on the board. Gudge said the program was paused to get a policy approved, which has occurred. A new student representative could possibly be introduced to the board in September following some sort of election process or involvement of the Associated Student Body group.
