Othello Preschool reports on operations, priorities

OTHELLO – Othello School District Early Childhood Director Jennifer Garza presented to the Othello School Board Tuesday evening, following the board’s May 21 site visit at the Othello Preschool, on how the preschool is doing and some of its priorities over this school year. 

Garza started with some background on the preschool’s development, which she said has grown significantly over the last seven years.

“When I took over there it was just one classroom,” she said. “Currently, we have three full-day classes that are transitional kindergarten classes, we have four half-day classes and then we have two special (education) classes for students with special needs … This year we have about 230 students between all of our classrooms. When I started we had about 90, so we've increased quite a bit.”

Educators at the pre-school meet weekly to discuss their teaching strategies, Garza said, with two specific focuses this year.

“One was kind of our community and the culture at our building,” Garza said. “(The other was) the standards that we have to follow, (which) are the WAkid standards, which is the assessment that they give to all kindergarteners. Our transitional kindergarten classes also take that same assessment, so they take it three times a year and it measures their growth in eight different areas. This year we kind of took a deeper dive into the four we call the foundational areas, so social, emotional, physical and language, and then also we always are still focused on the academic side.”

Garza said two big focuses this year at the preschool have been inclusionary practices and multilingual practices – according to the presentation, the preschool has 100 multilingual students.

“The (multilingual) strategies – that was kind of like a district-wide focus,” she said. “Then inclusionary practices, we're getting more and more students that have a variety of needs, so changing some of our instruction to make sure that we're including all of those students.”

According to Garza’s presentation, the preschool has 11 students who qualify for special education and are part of the general education classes only, 6 students who are in both special education and general education and 36 specifically in special education.

“One other area this year that was a big year for us, we had 125 referrals,” she said. “That means 125 students that were brought to our special ed team to screen, and then 52 of them we did evaluations.”

Garza said the preschool has focused on making sure students know when they have poor behavior and how to act more appropriately, along with a similar program for emotions. 

“I worked with the (Educational Service District) and we got a program called Tucker the Turtle and it's just teaching kids there's more emotions than happy and sad. You can be angry but what is the proper way to behave when you're angry,” she said. “You can do this, this and this but you cannot do this, so it goes through a variety of motions and there's a little puppet that's the Tucker the Turtle and the kids love that, but really (it’s) just helping them learn how to self-regulate.”

Above all, Garza said the preschool tries to allow the students to experience the curriculum.

“You will very rarely find a worksheet,” she said. “Everything we do we try to make it hands-on. so something that they're getting to experience, they're getting to feel it, they're getting to see it and (its) not just a worksheet.”

At the end of the presentation, the board commented on the report and how things are going at the preschool. 

“Kudos to you for taking a program that was probably very small, not funded as much as it should have (been) and turning it into this,” said board member Isauro Pruneda.

Board member Lindsy Mollotte Prows also commented.

“I'm proud of the district, that they have put resources and time and energy into this program and you for leading it,” she said to Garza. “It's amazing, the things you guys are doing for these little kids in preparing them for kindergarten and the rest of their educational journey.”

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com.