B-OPS, other area districts receive awards
Earlier this week, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton and Education Commissioner Brenda Casselius announced that 74 public school districts and charter schools will receive state funding for this year’s preschool students. The Minnesota State Legislature earlier passed a scaled-back voluntary pre-K program whose goal is to improve early childhood education in impoverished school districts.
Almost 60% of school districts that applied for the funding were rejected. Governor Dayton points out that this high number of rejections demonstrates the need to increase funding.
In 2015, the state was ranked #50 in the country for access to full-day early learning programs.
Monday’s announcement will fund the enrollment of 3,302 of the state’s four-year-olds in preschool.
One of the districts to receive funding will be Butterfield-Odin Public School (B-OPS) District. The district will garner $87,727 for its 15 preschool students.
Other area school districts on the list include:
+ Heron-Lake Okabena Public School District – $80,396 for 14 preschool students.
+ Red Rock Central Public School District – $87,094 for 18 preschool students.
+ Round Lake-Brewster Public School District – $249,915 for 50 preschool students.
+ St. James Public School District – $378,396 for 77 preschool students.
+ Truman Public School District – $99,940 for 20 preschool students.
+ Westbrook-Walnut Grove Public School District – $35,330 for four preschool students.
