Skoufis made announcement Tuesday morning
The Cornwall Central School District will get $332,580 and the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District will get $170,940 in state aid in 2021-22 to operate Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) programs.
Senator James Skoufis announced “transformational” funding for UPK at a press conference at the Fort Montgomery Elementary School on Tuesday, noting that the total UPK funding for his senate district is $6 million. Nine school districts in the 39th District will receive state UPK funding for the first time, creating 950 new classroom seats for young students.
Cornwall will have funds for 60 fully-funded UPK slots and Highland Falls-Fort Mont-gomery will have 20. Other districts getting the funding are Chester, Monroe-Woodbury, Pine Bush, Warwick, Highland, Marlboro and Wallkill. A number of additional local districts, such as Newburgh and North Rockland, already receive UPK funding.
“I fought tooth and nail for Universal Pre-K to become a reality for all students in our district because I know just how important those first years of education are,” Skoufis said. He said that New York City’s UPK programs have been funded for years, the majority of the rest of the state has not.
“I made it my mission to make sure the Hudson Valley received funding parity and, with this budget, we’ve finally done it,” he said.
While the HF-FMCSD has operated a taxpayer-funded pre-kindergarten program for nearly a decade, the UPK funding will assist in running that program. The CCSD does not have a pre-kindergarten program, and can use the funds in the coming year to set one up, Skoufis said. He said districts which don’t have a pre-kindergarten program, like Cornwall, can also contract with private preschool programs with their funds while getting programs set up.
“Cornwall and many other districts will newly create a program,” Skoufis said, noting that flexibility in the funding.
“This is a major victory for families in the Hudson Valley,” he added.
HF-FMCSD officials, including BOE President Anne Lawless and FMES Principal Rachel Adelstein, praised the senator.
“Senator Skoufis has been an incredible friend, advocate, and representative to Highland Falls and I thank him for his tireless persistence in securing this funding,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Sheboy said. “This funding gives us an opportunity to continue to provide an essential learning experience for all of our students. Research clearly shows the positive impact a strong pre-kindergarten experience has on the academic success of children throughout their entire academic career.”
The press conference was attended by just a few people. Three of them were Highland Falls’ Charlene Yehl, her son Luca and daughter Sevi. Luca will attend pre-kindergarten this fall.
“This is so important for our district and our children’s future,” Yehl said. “We weren’t sure what was going to happen to our pre-k programming, there was deep concern among parents. Today, we are so grateful, relieved, and excited that our children will have this opportunity for the educational experience they all deserve; Thank you for fighting for our kids.”
The HF-FMCSD did not run a pre-kindergarten program in the 2020-21 school year due to space limitations because of COVID-19. The district is planning to resume it in 2021-22.
Alli Lennon, a pre-kindergarten teacher at the Fort Montgomery Elementary School, was also at the conference. “I try to live my life with the words children first,” she said, “if we always put our children first we will never fail.”
Three of her former students, kindergartners Ray Grunert and Jaela Larkins and second grader Maggie Guerra, were also at the event; they held large signs for Skoufis to combat a gusty wind on Tuesday.
A total of $105 million to expand UPK outside New York City, — providing funding to 210 districts statewide that don’t currently receive state-funded pre-K — is in the state’s 2021-22 budget.
