SKOWHEGAN — A new early childhood education program aiming to serve at-risk children will take shape in School Administrative District 54 this summer after an announcement Thursday of a $6 million federal grant toward the project.
The program in the Skowhegan-based school district will provide education and child care services for 16 low-income families of infants and toddlers beginning in the late summer, said Nicole Chaplin, a region manager for Kennebec Valley Community Action Program that will be overseeing the new program.
Applications already are being accepted. Additional money also is being allocated for existing early child care programs in the area, and an estimated 72 children in the area are expected to benefit from it in the first year. Up to 200 children could be served over the 4.5-year period of the grant, officials said.
“We’re hoping to provide a quality program with quality staff to empower the families in this area,” Chaplin said Thursday at a news conference announcing the grant.
KVCAP, a Waterville-based nonprofit community action agency that focuses on overcoming poverty, received the Early Headstart Childcare Partnership Grant for $6 million through the U.S. Administration for Children and Families.
Children living in poverty is a concern for school officials in the region. In SAD 54 — which serves families in the Somerset County towns of Canaan, Cornville, Norridgewock, Mercer, Skowhegan and Smithfield — 72 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which is based on household income, according to the Maine Department of Education. Statewide, an average of 46.6 percent of students are eligible.
A 2014 county health ranking report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that 26 percent of those under the age of 18 in Somerset County are living in poverty. That report found a statewide average of 20 percent living in poverty.
The federal money will be awarded over the next four years and will be used for programs in four counties — Kennebec, Penobscot, Piscataquis and Somerset — although about $4 million will go to the Skowhegan area, said Kathy Colfer, director of child and family services for KVCAP.
In addition to the new program on the SAD 54 campus, money also is available for existing early child care providers in the Skowhegan area for things such as professional development and continuing education, Colfer said.
In June, a portable building will be moved to the SAD 54 campus to house the new early childhood program. The program will have a total of seven new employees in the district, including teachers, classroom aides and an early childhood education coach, Chaplin said.
The new effort will be modeled on and run by Educare Central Maine, an existing early childhood education program run by KVCAP in Waterville. That program, established in 2010 with support from Doris Buffett’s Sunshine Lady Foundation and federal stimulus funding, serves more than 200 children, most of whom are from low-income families and considered to be at risk.
The philosophy behind programs such as Educare is that most brain development occurs in a child’s first few years of life and that with nurturing, a positive environment, help for and collaboration with parents, children are more ready for kindergarten and more likely to succeed later in school.
SAD 54 already has a pre-school program for 4- and 5-year-olds, but the early childhood program would be the first of its kind in the district, SAD 54 Superintendent Brent Colbry said. He said he is hopeful the program will be able to extend beyond the initial four years that the grant will fund.
“Early intervention is absolutely the key to success later,” Colbry said. “The more you can teach educational skills early, the less a student requires additional services such as special education later on.”
In addition to the $6 million federal grant, about $500,000 in private donations have also been raised to fund early childhood programs through Educare, including the new program in SAD 54.
“I’m really encouraged by the community support we’ve seen for this kind of early child care programming,” said Bill Alfond, president of the William and Joan Alfond Foundation and a private donor to the cause. “The people behind it are well motivated and extremely thoughtful. I can’t think of another thing we’ve been involved in that I can speak of with more excitement than Educare Central Maine.”
In applying for the grant, KVCAP was also required to prove long-term sustainability of the program, Colfer said. She said the agency hopes to apply for another grant to keep the Skowhegan program going beyond the grant announced Thursday.
“We’ve been wanting to focus on this area for a long time, and we’d love to see the program get bigger,” Colfer said.
Child care providers interested in getting funding and families interested in applying to the Skowhegan program can contact Jessica Powell at jessicap@kvcap.org or 314-5846.
Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
Twitter: @rachel_ohm
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.