Stepping Stones Preschool, after 20 years of being at Coleytown Elementary, will move into the new Long Lots Elementary school once the rebuild process is complete.
Stepping Stones Preschool is an integrated preschool program, meaning that it is primarily responsible for teaching students who require special education. As per state regulations, Stepping Stones would need to have a 1 to 1 ratio of students who have special needs with peers who don’t require special education. This requirement has not been met however, because of the smaller learning environment at Coleytown Elementary school.
“We need space,” Stepping Stones Director Megan Clarke said. “We are really bursting at the seams here; we have one small hallway, six classrooms, and I have staff working in small spaces which makes it hard when you’re working with little ones.”
Due to the increasing size of Stepping Stones, the program requires a new space that also helps provide preschoolers with a curriculum in line with what they will learn in elementary school. Being housed at the new Long Lots Elementary School would allow staff to coordinate and accommodate all children.
“I personally collaborate often with the principal and admin team at Coley[town] Elementary,” Clarke said. “In terms of keeping up with what is happening in the curriculum at the elementary school level.”
Besides academics, the landscape of the elementary schools would help prepare preschoolers for their transition into kindergarten.
“[Children] get to have the same experiences and visit those same environments as [elementary schoolers],” Clarke said. “[This] is awesome because it prepares our students for kindergarten: what it’s like to go to P.E., what it’s like to go to the cafeteria, or the library.”
Long Lots has needed a rebuild for a long time, ever since system tests uncovered that some portions of the school, like the H-VAC system and the envelope of the building, were nearing the ends of their lives.
“When they started thinking of how they can remedy [the damaged portions of the school], they explored the option of renovating the building, adding a brand new building, or a combination of [both],” Long Lots Principal Kimberly Ambrosio said.
From the very beginning, Stepping Stones has been incorporated into the rebuild of Long Lots in order to help the preschool have a more friendly setting for their demographic of learners.
“It would be very mindful planning for what you would hope and want to see in a preschool right now,” Ambrosio said. “They’re using more elementary space, as opposed to something that was designed specifically for that age group.”
The Long Lots Elementary merger with Stepping Stones Preschool would also allow administrators to integrate their programs to produce the best results for both schools.
“Both Heggerty and [the preschool’s] math program [will allow] our students to receive instruction in those areas which is right in line with what is happening in kindergarten at the public schools,” Clarke said.
The preschool will have a chance to grow and fulfill all the requirements it needs to, thanks to the rebuild of Long Lots Elementary.
“No other school can house us,” Clarke said. “We are a program that is growing all the time.”
