Birchwood Elementary School Preschool

Birchwood Elementary School will be introducing a new preschool program when it reopens in the fall. There is a potential for two programs: one developmental program, and possibly a community partner program.

The developmental program will definitely be incorporated in the fall with the opening of the rest of the school, and Matthew Whitten, the Birchwood’s new principal, said he is 99 percent sure that the school will be getting a community partner program, but it is unclear which community partner will be established.

            The developmental preschool is a special education program that Whitten said has been planned since the designing phase of the building. Kristi Dominguez, the Early Childhood Education Coordinator for the school district, confirmed that Birchwood is just the first school to open under the district’s Bellingham Promise.

            The Bellingham Promise is a strategic plan created by Bellingham Public Schools to ensure the commitment to the children of Bellingham’s education and well-being. The Promise states that this will be achieved through innovation and flexibility, early childhood education, a one schoolhouse approach, and student, family, and community engagement.

So the decision to add a preschool to the new school was not the work of an individual. It was a group decision that involved the district’s Special Education Department, the district’s Preschool Review Advisory Group, the Early Childhood Education Department, with supervision by the superintendent, Greg Baker. Whitten said that while the superintendent was not part of the early decision-making but “may ultimately approve the decision.”

Of the Special Education Department, Whitten said that the director, Michael Haberman, had a lot of voice in making the decision for the addition of a preschool. Their department’s goal is to establish a language-based curriculum and provide services for children with disabilities in general education.

Haberman is also Co-Chair of the Preschool Review Advisory Group, along with Dominguez. This group’s goal is to review current preschools in the school district, develop plans for high-quality preschools, and more specifically make recommendations for the fall of this year and attempt to expand preschools through the district’s new schools over the next 3 to 5 years.

One specific task the group has done is give feedback on the configuration and layout plan for the Birchwood classroom when Whitten presented them with a design plan during one of their meetings.   

While Whitten was not part of the decision-making process of agreeing on the addition of the preschool, since that was before he was added to the project, he has made some changes since.

            When it became clear that there was going to be two preschool programs, and that the school needed an extra classroom, Whitten said “we adjusted the cabinetry heights to make sure that they were appropriate for preschool.”

Whitten also mentioned other smaller, organizational considerations, such as bathrooms, “which aren’t common to all the other classrooms so they have their own space.” There also has to be specialized transport for the students so they don’t have to walk long distances to and from the normal bus loading area. Whitten also posed the question of how to serve food in the classrooms since other grades will be eating in a cafeteria.

Dominguez also added that adding an appropriate preschool playground is one of the next steps in the project. The idea is to have a “2 to 5-year-old preschool outdoor play space so that they can go and climb and develop their growth motor skills,” said Dominguez. This playground will be separate than that of the main elementary schools playground, but Dominguez said that children will be able to access both.

            There will be requirements for admission into the developmental preschool. In order to be admitted, children ages 3 to 4 would be screened by “varied specialists like a school psychologist…an occupational or physical therapist, or speech and language pathologist,” said Whitten. If the child was found to have a disability, they would qualify for the developmental pre-k and would be admitted into the program.

            Dominguez added that each student will also need an IEP. An IEP is an Individualized Education Program that a child receives after such a screening. This is an individualized document that will assist the educators in the preschool in improving development and educational results of the child.

For the developmental preschool, there is no cap on the amount of children admitted into the program. “It’s more of a district-wide program so they place kids trying to be geographically smart so kids that are near Birchwood would mostly likely attend the Birchwood pre-k,” said Whitten. But the normal teacher to student ratio is 3 to 10, so when a classroom fills up the district will spread the students to different schools.

When talking about the curriculum involved in a developmental preschool, Dominguez said “We have core beliefs that play is a foundation and a piece that’s part of everyday so every day you would see children engaging in meaningful and intentional play.” She also added that the children will be learning reading, writing, math, and science just like in any other preschool.

            Each community partner program, such as Opportunity Council or Whatcom Community College, has different qualifications. A community partner program is when a school will provide the space for a preschool, and the partner will “provide a preschool in that site and the preschool becomes part of the school but its run by the organization that put it there,” said Dominguez.

One example of a qualification given by Whitten was family income level: “a family with less resources would be able to qualify potentially for a Head Start program.” Head Start is a federally funded program that aids in the education of children from low-income families, and is just one of many possible community partners.

            According to Whitten, the three supervising adults that would be in the classroom will consist of one certificated preschool teacher with a special education background, and two instructional assistants. Whitten said that “staffing decisions in the preschool haven’t been finalized yet.”

The addition of the preschool so far has had good reception. Kelly Morgan, neighborhood resident, parent, and teacher said “I am especially excited about the potential for a preschool program of some kind on campus if that bears itself out.”

Dominguez said one of the things that need to happen before the preschool opens is the need to redistribute families. “We’ve been working with families as boundary changes go into effect as to who will go to Birchwood,” Dominguez said.

The school also has to buy supplies for the preschool, which is anything “from desks to chairs to a dollhouse to home furniture that you’re going to want in a high quality learning environment,” said Dominguez.

The school district has other developmental preschool programs in Geneva, Happy Valley, Northern Heights, and Sunnyland elementary schools, according to Whitten.  The district is also providing space for community partner programs in Carl Cozier, Roosevelt, Alderwood, Silver Beach, and Sunnyland elementary schools, according to Dominguez.

These programs are all part of the expansion of high quality preschools in the district promoted by the Preschool Review Advisory Group. But Dominguez said that “It’s bigger than our school district, it’s about the community of Bellingham and asking ourselves how do we provide opportunities for all children who want it to have a high quality early learning program.”