Clarke schools win $5.8M to expand pre-K reading program

A program to make good readers of Clarke County's youngest students will get nearly $6 million, the second largest federal grant this year to prepare children for the rigors of kindergarten.

Over three years, administrators will use the grant to hire staff, train in the latest researched-based teaching methods and monitor students' progress better than the basic requirements of the state's pre-K program.

"The whole premise of the grant is, if there's any child behind, we're going to give them all the interventions that we can to ensure that they are on target and ready for kindergarten," said Jan Stephens, the director of the Clarke County School District's office of early learning.

Two years ago, the school district won a $6.4 million award to implement and support the Early Reading First program.

Today, 491 students participate in the program, which is run at Title I elementary schools - schools where most students are poor. Students also attend classes at the H.T. Edwards building off Dearing Extension and at Little Ones Academy, a private Athens daycare center.

The new grant will create 326 additional spaces and reduce class sizes.

Only three elementary schools in the district this year - Barrow, Whit Davis and Timothy - did not qualify for Title I funding and will not be eligible for Early Reading First funding, Stephens said.

While the state requires all teachers to receive 10 hours of professional development training every year, teachers and staff paid with the grant money must have 200 hours a year, Stephens said.

"Teachers will be more highly trained; they will have more resources in their classrooms; they will have more bodies - adults - in the classrooms to help," Stephens said.

Teachers also can place some struggli

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