Indian Lake Schools will open a preschool classroom in the fall of 2022.
The board gave its authorization to create the classroom during the January board of education meeting.
Superintendent Rob Underwood said the class will be housed in Indian Lake Elementary School. The process of hiring a teacher is already underway.
Underwood explained that even with the Discovery Center in Bellefontaine and a Head Start classroom at ILES offering pre-K services to area students, half of Indian Lake’s kindergarten children still have had no pre-K education.
“We know that there’s a need from that standpoint. We are also looking to serve our students long-term through retention. We want to keep our kids at Indian Lake. We know that if they start at our elementary they will have a good, positive experience there and they’re likely to stay at Indian Lake Schools.”
The plan is to offer half-day, Monday through Thursday classes. The morning session will be 8 to 11 a.m., with the afternoon session running from 12 to 3 p.m. The district will provide transportation to school for the morning session and from school for the afternoon session. There will be no mid-day transportation. The preschool will enroll up to 16 students per session to start.
Underwood is excited about the opportunity.
“We have the space available in our elementary right now. The time is definitely right and the need is definitely there to serve our Indian Lake students.”
Enrollment information will be available later this spring.