News Photo by Crystal Nelson Great Start Readiness Program lead teacher Lisa Dellar works at her desk on Friday at Alcona Community Schools in Lincoln. Operation of Alcona’s GSRP classroom has transitioned to the school district from the Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational School District.

ALPENA — No longer able to afford preschool classrooms on its own, the Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational Service District has now partnered with an area nonprofit and an area school district to keep the classes going.

Alcona Community Schools is now operating its own Great Start Readiness Program classroom and the ESD has partnered with the Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency, which offers Head Start programs, to keep classes operational in Alpena, Atlanta, and Hillman.

The Alcona superintendent “was able to take the leap as we were needing to close our doors,” Shellie Gohl, coordinator of early learning and instructional services at the AMA ESD, said. “And we also expanded our partnership with Head Start, so we have 13 GSRP-HeadStart blends this year.”

Head Start is the federal preschool program, while GSRP is the state’s.

The ESD still administers the GSRP program, but Alcona and NEMCSA help run the classrooms.

Intermediate school districts — another name for ESDs — receive state funding to implement GSRP programs.

Gohl said the $7,250 per full-day student ISDs receive for the preschool program has proven too little to meet legislative requirements.

Gohl said that, over the years, additional program restrictions and the need for additional staffing kept adding cost to the program. She said research now shows it costs about $14,000 per child to properly provide preschool education.

With the support of the AMA ESD, Alcona is now running its own GSRP classroom by offsetting program costs with federal Title I funding. An expansion of the ESD’s existing partnership with NEMCSA helps provide GSRP/Head Start blend programs in Alpena, Atlanta, and Hillman.

Alcona Superintendent Dan O’Connor said having an in-house preschool classroom has been part of the district’s strategic plan for a number of years, so they couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

“We’re really excited to be able to offer this opportunity,” he said.

“We partner with AMA ESD to run GSRP classrooms, often blending the funding with Head Start to provide an optimal preschool experience for children,” Tricia Grifka, NEMCSA’s early childhood services director, said in an email to The News. “We work with local school districts to have classrooms in their buildings so the children in that district have preschool before entering kindergarten. ”

O’Connor said having an in-house preschool classroom means the Alcona school district had to obtain its own state license and teachers they hire are now part of the district’s staff.

The board in August hired Lisa Dellar as the district’s lead preschool teacher and Desiree Renz as the associate preschool teacher. Dellar previously taught the program through the AMA ESD.

Dellar said the AMA ESD had purchased a new curriculum last year, which it gave to Alcona. Dellar said they saw “huge growth” in student success and readiness for kindergarten with the new curriculum.

“Because of the student successes growing so dramatically between the two curriculums, Alcona made the decision to stay the course and continue seeing that rise in student achievement,” she said.

Nine students are expected to attend the program when it begins on Oct. 3.

Dellar said they would like to see the program expand to its capacity of 16 students.

Crystal Nelson can be reached at 989-358-5687 or cnelson@thealpenanews.com.