Expanding pre-K during a crisis in funding for public education seems like the opposite of what a school district should be doing, but the shortage of preschool spots in Sitka – and childcare overall –  can’t wait for the politics to settle out in Juneau.

Xóots Elementary principal Jill Lecrone says action needs to be taken now.

“The bottom line in Sitka is we need more spots,” said Lecrone, “as currently, we do not have enough spots for the amount of four- and five-year olds in our community.”

The idea of a tuition-based program emerged last fall, as it became clear that both private daycares and preschools were at capacity, leaving many working families scrambling to place their children.

Xóots Yadi, as the district preschool will be called, was conceived in November, and piloted in the new year. Teacher Marley Wild says her group of four- and five-year olds showed rapid growth in the program, which is housed in the same building as Sitka’s kindergarten and first grades.

“It also aligns with K-2 academics,” said Wild. “Our kiddos know how to rock-paper-scissors to solve small problems already. They know where the bathrooms are. They can tell us the school rules and show us what that looks like. So it’s this natural segue into kindergarten as well.”

Jamie Eells is a parent of two preschool-aged children, both of whom are in traditional daycare. She says that she and other parents of preschool-aged children are wait-listed in every available preschool in Sitka. She told the board that one long-established preschool has only seven openings. Eells saw firsthand the success of the district’s pilot preschool.

“I work across the hall as a teacher, and I do pop over every once in a while, and I just see all the amazing things that are happening in there, the artwork on the walls, the conversations they’re having, the learning they’re doing,” said Eells. “I walked past a little group of kids sitting in the hallway looking at a potato bug, and they were learning all the things about how to share the potato bug and how to be gentle, and they were just having on-the-spot learning right there about an insect. It was just phenomenal. I think Marley is doing a wonderful job, and I really hope to see this program continue for our students.”

The district wants to expand Xóots Yadi to 20 students next year, which means hiring additional staff. The district has already worked out an agreement with Tlingit & Haida Headstart to ensure that Xóots Yadi doesn’t take eligible students out of that program. Nevertheless, state and tribal childcare subsidies will support Xóots Yadi’s $250,000 annual budget.

The sticking point for some Sitka School Board members is the relationship between Xóots Yadi and the district’s existing afterschool program called Ventures, which provides childcare for elementary-aged students between the end of the school day and the end of the work day for parents.

Xóots Yadi teacher Marley Wild coordinates Ventures in the afternoons, after teaching preschool in the morning. Some of the Ventures budget ($77,500) would cover this dual role. Superintendent Deidre Jenson explained that the new preschool and Ventures were always intended to complement each other.

“So (the pre-K) was never really meant to be kind of a standalone program,” said Jenson. “It is to be used in conjunction, because there’s also the after-school care program that goes along with, that supports kids that don’t have a place to go after school’s out. So that’s how it’s kind of used together.”

With no impact on the district’s general fund budget, the board decided to get behind the expansion of the preschool. Board member Steve Morse did not see it as a dilution of the Ventures program or funding – in fact, just the opposite.

“This is a win-win for both programs,” said Morse, “because really dealing with three-year olds, you’ve got a lot of staff that are not teachers, you know, they don’t have the training of teachers, they don’t understand the development of children. And here we’ve got a teacher in both programs. It may be half time, but that’s one of the benefits of the way this is organized.”

The board voted unanimously to extend and expand its tuition-based preschool program for the school year beginning next fall.