Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1103796
" This is not child care. We maximize every possible instructional moment. Every opportunity is a learning experience." — Cheri Doria, Lindsay Unified director of preschools is a rarity if not completely unique — it may currently be the only school district in Californi a to prov i d e preschool to all students without conditions. That's about to change. With Gov. Gavin Newsom's embrace of early childhood education and his proposal to invest nearly $2 billion into resources for Cali- fornia's youngest learners, classrooms full of excited students across the state will s o on mirror th e prescho ol program in Lindsay, which is a thriving example of what the new focus on early learning opportunities in school dis- tricts statewide can achieve. " T h i s i s n o t c h i l d c a r e . We m a ximi z e e v er y p o ssi - ble instructional moment," says Cheri Doria, director of preschools at LUSD. "Ever y o p p o r t u n i t y i s a l e a r n i n g exp erience. It impacts our learners so much in their future." While the national focus on preschool and its num erous ben efits has taken center stage more recently, Lindsay has long sought to provide all its pre-K chil- dren with early education opportunities. Starting in 2003, LUSD began offering pre- school to all learners, cobbling together funding from a variety of state, county and local sources. When the county fund- ing dried up in 2010, Lindsay could only provide preschool to its most vulnerable students. Doria says there was a desire to reinstate the universal program, but it wasn't until 2016 when a kindergarten e d u c a t o r st a r t e d t ra c k i n g data on her kindergarten stu- dents that the district truly realized the importance of their preschool program. An educator's research spurs change " S a y i t l i k e w e'r e p i r a t e s : Arrrr!" instructs kindergarten teacher turned elementar y reading specialist Kristy Cae- sar, as her students finish a session and prepare to return to class. "ank you for growing your brain with me today!" A s th e third-grad ers l eave, Ca e sar says she can tell almost immediately w h e t h e r h e r l e a r n e r s a tt e n d e d p re - school. It's a skill she honed three years ago when her new kindergarten class was far behind grade level and lacking in social-emotional skills. Shockingly, more than three- quarters of the new students Educator Kristy Caesar studied the impacts of early ed on her kindergartners, which led to preschool for all Lindsay kids. 27 A P R I L / M AY 2 019 Cheri Doria Lindsay Unified School District Enrollment: English learners: Migrant students: Students qualifying for free/reduced- price lunch: Ethnic breakdown: 4,111 1,859 (45.2%) 740 (18.0%) 3,849 (93.6%) Hispanic/ Latinx 93.6% White 3.6% Asian 1.8% Other 1.0% Source: Ed-Data