WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Will the Watertown City School District run its own universal pre-K program instead of paying local organizations to run it? A former school board member says she fears the wrong decision is coming soon.
The start of July ends Millie Smith’s term on Watertown’s school board. She’s leaving, worried about one of the first issues that could come before the new school board.
“Potentially, 11 plus people are going to lose their jobs in the next week. There’s going to be 100 kids displaced from programs,” she said.
Smith is referring to the school’s universal pre-K, now run through community-based organizations like Treehouse Child Care and the Community Action Planning Council. Smith says she understands the Watertown City School District submitted a plan to the state and is on the path to running UPK in-house, cutting back on services from groups like Treehouse and CAPC.
Smith says if that decision is coming, it’s the wrong move, believing educators’ jobs are at risk and students would be shuffled to new locations with new teachers. Smith also says a current 70-kid waiting list would get longer. She doesn’t like how the school district got here and is critical of district Superintendent Dr. Larry Schmiegel.
“They have unilaterally made all these decisions without board approval, and now, after the fact, he has a resolution on the floor in order to substantiate his decisions without board support,” she said.
Anthony Doldo is a board member for CAPC. He, too, is worried if the school administers its own UPK program, people CAPC employs would lose their jobs and has tried to convey that message.
“It’s like it fell on deaf ears. We have – we had 4 classrooms, and they took 3 away from us, so now we only have one,” he said.
Doldo feels that using CAPC and other community groups is a cheaper option than the school running its own program.
We reached out to Schmiegel to learn if the school district is ready to make a final decision on how UPK will be run in the district, but we haven’t heard back.
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