October 9, 2006 - Area parents are finding more options for pre-kindergarten classes closer to home as more school systems look outside their own buildings for space to educate Tennessee 's youngest learners.

At least 38 of the 230 new pre-K classrooms funded by $20 million in state expansion money this year are located off school campuses in Head Start facilities, children's homes and child-care centers — some of which are in or near public housing developments. Last year, the state program's first, 30 new pre-K classes opened outside schools.

This year, Metro Nashville, the Franklin Special School District and Montgomery County received state funding for new pre-K classrooms outside schools for the first time.

The state has encouraged collaboration with child-care providers for several reasons: It helps free up school space, gives parents the option of putting their children in schools where older children aren't around, and creates more pre-K opportunities in low-income areas.

"The biggest plus is that you can actually serve a community where the biggest need is," said Bobbi Lussier, executive director of the state's Office of Early Learning.

Lakisa Kelly's son Clyde Williams, 4, attends one of the new classes, housed at McNeilly Center for Children in east Nashville .

A year ago, Clyde attended day care there. Kelly said she'd enrolled him in a different program for kids his age but wasn't happy with the teachers. So she brought him back to McNeilly.

“It's convenient,” she said. “I just live right down the street.”

Many children in McNeilly's pre-K classes have younger siblings who are also cared for there. Like Clyde Williams, most live nearby.

Last year, the state started funneling pre-K money into local school systems, which in turn used them to pay for classrooms inside and outside school buildings. Those school districts have the option to team with private child-care providers to provide pre-K rooms.

“More of our school systems are stepping outside the box. School systems are beginning to look outside their own facilities,” Lussier said.

Metro has had pre-K since 1990 and has 92 pre-K classrooms in school buildings; officials said they ventured outside campuses this year to help the district's customers.

“It definitely has promise. It helps the people in the community — they're our customers,” said Florence Kidd, elementary director for Metro schools. “It's geared toward parents. It really helps working families.”

Montgomery County schools opened 10 new rooms this year, including one at Austin Peay State University . Vicki Wallace, director of elementary education with the Montgomery County school system, said the classroom is within walking distance of a high-poverty neighborhood — that proximity made it a prime place to put the pre-K room.

“The biggest positive is that we can serve more children,” Wallace said.

“The children who typically come from poverty come to school without the experiences and background and language skills that other children come with.”

Later this month the system plans to meet with private child-care providers who might be interested in opening state-funded rooms.

Wallace said the school system is still trying to determine how to supervise people working around pre-kindergartners in an off-campus classroom who don't work for the school system.

“It's always a little risky and a little scary to put a classroom in a building where you don't have control,” she said.

Franklin 's city school system has been offering pre-K services for more than 10 years. This year is the first time the system has offered it outside a school.

“We're looking to see how it works,” said Connie McKee, instructional facilitator for early childhood with the Franklin Special School District .

There are seven pre-K classrooms for at-risk children educated by the city school system. Three are funded through state dollars. The system opened its first off-campus pre-K classroom this fall, a state-funded room at a nonprofit child-care center.

Several state school districts, including Memphis and Hamilton County , already provide pre-K classes outside traditional school settings. Some do so without the state's financial help.

The Murfreesboro city school system has six off-campus pre-K classrooms — two each in the Franklin Heights , Mercury Court and Oakland Court housing projects. Of those six rooms, two are new this year, funded by the school district. The state is funding four new pre-K classes there, all located in schools.

“The benefit for having off-site ones in the housing projects is transportation. The children are right there,” said Nadine Harris, principal at Murfreesboro 's Bellwood Discovery School . Harris oversees all the city's pre-K classes.

There are about 370 pre-K students, mostly 4-year-olds, in Murfreesboro . Most children who attend are at-risk socioeconomically, and many can't afford private pre-K.

“There are socializing benefits, learning to get along with other children,” Harris said. “They also get accustomed to the traditional school day and are exposed to books and reading.”

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