The Eudora school district is looking to expand preschool enrollment on the heels of a survey that indicates great support from parents for such opportunities.

The Eudora school board had already agreed to move preschool classrooms for the 2017-18 school year from Eudora Elementary School to old West Elementary School, 1310 Winchester Road. Moreover, it has agreed to the plan of Dan Wray, director of the East Central Kansas Cooperative in Education of Baldwin City, Eudora and Wellsville school districts, to open its half-day 3- and 4-year-old Preschool Enhancement Program classrooms to more typically developing students. The Eudora school district currently has four half-day PEP classes available with free enrollment to qualifying young students who are found through screenings to have special education needs or to be at risk academically because of cognitive, social, physical, communication, emotional, behavioral or self-help skills. The district also now accepts about 11 typically developing 3- and 4-years old students per PEP classroom as peer role models.

Wray told the Journal-World in February the goal for the next school year was to increase peer student enrollment to 13 to 15 students per classroom. The increased enrollment would give more children the opportunity to attend preschool with curriculum designed to prepare them for kindergarten and would create “less restrictive environments” for special-education and at-risk children by placing more typically developing peers in classrooms, he said.

A survey shared March 9 with the Eudora school board found interest beyond Wray’s proposed numbers.

The survey of district parents of children who will be 3 or 4 years old at the start of the 2017-2018 school year found 113 of 126 responding parents had an interest in enrolling their children in a district preschool if space were available. Of those, 78 parents indicated their children probably would be peer students, and 24 anticipated their children would qualify as at-risk or special-education students.

Eudora Superintendent Steve Splichal said the survey results were very encouraging and revealed the demand for preschool options in the Eudora district.

The survey included a “placeholder” enrollment fee of $50 per month for peer students, Splichal said. Eighty-four of the 126 parents responding said they would be willing to pay the fee.

The enrollment fee was one of the issues that would be further fleshed out as the Eudora school board discussed the proposal again at its April 13 meeting and made a final decision on the expansion in May, he said.

Other issues to be explored are the addition of a fifth preschool classroom at West, and staffing. Splichal said the assumption was each classroom would be staffed with a teacher and paraprofessional, but that additional staffers could be needed for some special-needs students.

Should the board approve preschool expansion in May, the district would start hiring additional staff for the coming school year.

The $45 million 2007 bond referendum that provided $27 million to build Eudora Elementary School also provided funds to convert classrooms at West Elementary for preschool and kindergarten use. Those classrooms were used for that purpose from the fall of 2009 until state budget cuts in 2010 prompted the district to move preschool and kindergarten programs to Eudora Elementary School. In addition to housing the district’s administrative offices, West also now contains offices for the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center.