The Caldwell School District will sprout its first preschools this fall, taught and coordinated by YMCA staff. A local learning center director will help create teacher/administrative teams in the district’s secondary schools. And the money will come not from tax dollars but from community partners.
It’s the P16 Project, which aims to boost educational aspirations and achievement by tapping resources beyond perpetually scarce state school funds. Stretching from preschool through college, P16 aims to change a statistic that causes great concern among Caldwell school, business and civic leaders.
According to a recent study, Caldwell students are less likely to go to college than their counterparts elsewhere in the Treasure Valley: 23 percent compared to a Valleywide average of 46 percent.
The district aims to more than double that rate to 50 percent within four years. One of the district’s community partners, Lee Pesky Learning Center Director David Holmes, thinks they’ll hit closer to 70 percent.
“The important thing is to have children understand that goals count, and we will be there to support them as they pursue those goals,” said Holmes, who will coordinate the secondary-school portion of P16.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
“Everything that happens in this community is interrelated,” Caldwell Mayor Garret Nancolas said at Tuesday’s P16 announcement, voicing the spirit of partnership that drew dozens of business leaders, educators and other community members.
The district’s major partners are the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation, United Way of the Treasure Valley and the Treasure Valley YMCA.
The Albertson Foundation, which recently launched a “Go On” initiative to get more Idaho students to enter and complete college, is funding the project’s first year for $400,000. The YMCA is providing teachers and a program director to bring preschool classes and after-school programs into Caldwell schools. The United Way has committed $500,000 for project years 2 through 4. United Way also is collecting and distributing the money for P16.
Other partners also are on board, including Holmes, the Idaho Business Coalition for Education Excellence, the city of Caldwell and the College of Idaho.
The project will include financial aid for students who can’t afford pre-school or after-school program fees, plus scholarships to help high school graduates go on to college or other postsecondary training.
“We want to make sure that every kid who wants to go on to post-secondary education has the knowledge and the money to do it,” district spokeswoman Jennifer Swindell said.
$900,000 DOWN, $3.3 MILLION TO GO
The four-year P16 Project is expected to cost $4.2 million, a little more than four times the amount of funding already committed to P16.
“We’re not worried,” said Swindell. “If we’re successful in year 1 and can show measurable success, I think United Way and the Albertson Foundation will consider us for more funding.”
Other foundations and businesses and groups are also expected to step up.
Already, the Idaho Women's Charitable Foundation has kicked in $25,000 to help with efforts in Caldwell secondary schools, Holmes said.
GETTING AN EARLY START
Early childhood education is a big part of the P16 vision. The program launches this fall with two Guided Discovery preschools, a Treasure Valley Y program, at Wilson and Lincoln elementaries.
By the 2014-15 school year, plans call for providing preschools at all six Caldwell elementaries, serving about 480 pre-kindergarten students ages 3 to 5.
P16’S ORIGINS
The spark of P16, named for preschool through grade 16, came via the findings of the Treasure Valley Education Partnership, whose United Way-commissioned report was released in the spring of 2010.
The study found that Caldwell had the lowest college-going rate of the six districts that provided their data: Boise, Caldwell, Meridian, Melba, Parma and Vallivue.
The TVEP study also suggested a “community-based change effort to close our educational achievement gap” and noted a “desire to form a Valleywide ‘cradle to college’ K-16 continuum from existing efforts.”
P16 partners hope it can spark similar efforts across the state and even the nation.
Former Caldwell Superintendent Roger Quarles advocated piloting such a program in Caldwell, and the partners have worked on the project for the past year.
P16 was initially scheduled to be announced in May, but Quarles resigned to take a job with Boise State University and the announcement was delayed a month as the new interim co-superintendents, Jonathan Cline and Randy Schrader, took the helm.
Kristin Rodine 377-6447
