The opening of the new Anderson Community Schools preschool, Eastview Pre-K Center, was announced at a recent ACS Board of School Trustees meeting.
The preschool is set to open in time for the next school year in the fall of 2025.
Marisa Muir, who is in her second year as the director at Southview Preschool Center, was appointed to a new position as principal at Southview during Monday’s meeting.
Muir said she is excited for the opening of the new preschool center, adding that an additional pre-K learning center will benefit the community.
“I am an early learning advocate,” Muir said. “I feel like it is so very important to help children at a very early age to build the basic foundations needed to be successful throughout their educational journey. Preschool and pre-kindergarten are a huge and important piece of that.”
Eastview Pre-K Center will provide full-day pre-K programming for 4-year-olds and will be located at Anderson Intermediate School. The center will be separate and closed off from the rest of AIS, having its own entrance and acting as “a school within a school,” according to a presentation given at Monday’s meeting.
Eastview will have its own teachers, paraeducators, secretary and a lead program manager who will oversee the staff.
ACS Superintendent Joe Cronk said AIS will be a good location to have Eastview.
“We look at buildings where we have space, and all of our elementary (buildings) are pretty much full,” Cronk said. “The two buildings where we have the most space are AIS and Highland. Highland is seventh and eighth graders and that might not be a good mix, even if you could segment it off, so we put them in an elementary building where we have space.
“We were able to very effectively block that off and make (Eastview) a completely self-contained space with its own eating areas, gym and bathrooms, so it just works out better that way.”
The preschool will open with up to eight classrooms, allowing up to an additional 120 students for the upcoming school year. At the time of the presentation on Monday evening, Southview Preschool Center had 101 students on its waiting list for the half-day program.
“This is to expand pre-kindergarten for up to 120 students for full-day preschool,” Muir said. “That in itself, providing a longer day and better opportunity for more kids, is a huge accomplishment.”
Students who qualify to attend Eastview must turn four years old by Aug. 1, 2025 and qualify for On My Way Pre-K funding, or pay the weekly full-day rate.
Enrollment for Eastview will begin on April 22, when Southview holds its pre-K registration.
“We have done the research,” Cronk said. “Our kindergarten teachers will tell you that kids that have a quality pre-K experience come to kindergarten much further ahead than those who do not.
“This truly is a jump start to their success,” he added. “I am grateful it came together and all the pieces came together.”
This article appeared in The Herald Bulletin.