By PETER DAY
LEADER EDITOR
Several openings are available for the school district’s Pre-K Academy, which prepares children for kindergarten.
The academy has a limit of 10 students per semester and runs from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Thursday. The spring semester for Pre-K Academy begins on Jan. 21. Application deadline is Jan. 15.
The program is free.
Pre-K Academy students learn to write their names, improve their understanding of the alphabet and learn numbers, shapes and colors. They also learn social skills, such as playing together and sharing, and improve fine and gross motor skills through activities and play time.
“It will give them a better advantage, a leg up,” said Fran Muller, School Secretary for the district’s First 5 program.
Pre-K Academy is taught by Mr. Edwin Cruz and Allee Lattin.
To qualify for the program, children must be born between Oct. 2, 2008 and Sept. 1, 2009.
The Lucerne Valley Unified School District also offers a year-round preschool. The program is six hours long — from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., five days a week — and serves working parents or parents who are going to school full-time.
There preschool has a capacity of 23 students and is currently filled, according to Muller. The Pre School staff consists of Mary Rodriguez, Nicole McCarty and Veronica Walker.
Lucerne Valley’s Pre-School and Pre-K Academy are overseen by Billy Wessell, who also serves as Director of Business Services for the school district.
“We are one of the many hats Billy Wessell wears,” Muller said.
The programs are funded by First 5 San Bernardino, which was started following the 1998 passage of Proposition 10. The law provides for a portion of tobacco taxes to promote, support, and improve the early development of children from the prenatal stage to five years of age.
The local program, which was previously located in the Lucerne Valley Shopping Center, initially began as a School Readiness Program in the 2006-07 school year. Under Wessell’s direction, the school district secured a new grant for First 5 Preschool funding and later received an expansion of its program for the Pre-K Academy.
The Pre-K Academy fall semester ended in early December with a well-attended graduation ceremony on Dec. 12.
The First 5 Preschool are Pre-K Academy classrooms and play area are located on the southwest side of the Lucerne Valley Elementary School campus next to the bus barn.
Applications are available in the First 5 and LVES Office. For more information, contact Fran Muller at 760-248-7202.