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Hillsboro Elementary School will continue to accommodate a Headstart preschool program next fall.

School board members decided at their April 10 meeting to convert the elementary computer lab into a regular classroom and purchase a wireless computer lab in order to continue to provide classroom space for the Mayville State University-sponsored program.

The new arrangement will keep  preschool students in their year-old classroom and provide another classroom for grade school students. 

Twenty-eight preschoolers attended classes at Hillsboro Elementary School for the first time this school year. The preschool program is operated by Mayville State University’s Headstart program. The Hillsboro school provides classroom space; MSU provides a teacher.

The kindergarten through 6th grade enrollment at the school is 206 students this year. Classes range in size from 21 students in 4th grade to 35 students in 5th grade.

Next fall, a single section of 6th graders will “graduate” to the high school building, however, the usual two kindergarten sections will be moving in — leaving the elementary one classroom short, explained Bitz. Each grade has two sections this school year except for 4th and 6th grades.

The board explored a list of space-creating options, ranging from moving 6th grade classrooms to the high school to building an addition. Bitz recommended mobilizing the computer lab as “best for the students, least cost prohibitive.”

The mobile lab with 25 laptop computers will cost about $25,700 if purchased outright or about $8,900 a year over three years through a lease program. At the end of the lease, the school would own the computers. Supt. Bitz said the money for the computer equipment is available in the general fund.

Bitz pointed out that offering a preschool program in-house has its “hassles” but should build a “healthier district down the road.”

A school with a preschool, in-town busing to daycares, all-day every-day kindergarten, a breakfast program and an after-school program appeals to working families, Bitz noted.

“If we are lucky, a few families will choose Hillsboro over Kindred, Barnesville, Thompson or Casselton,” said the superintendent, who also serves on the local economic development board.

Bitz added that families outside the district have been sending their children to the preschool program. This may lead to those families choosing Hillsboro as the school for their children in the future, he said.

Other area schools are adopting  preschool programs as well. Central Valley plans to offer preschool next school year. Northern Cass and Thompson are working with their local Headstart centers to host preschools in their school buildings.

Bitz noted that schools are “seeing the local-term benefits of hosting a preschool.”

He added that the N.D. Legislature is looking to “pilot and fully fund” four preschools in 2009-10 and 2010-11. MSU’s program director Allison Johnson serves on the state’s preschool advisory committee and she has suggested to Bitz that Hillsboro could be one of those four sites, thanks to the school’s existing relationship with Mayville State and its established program.