Marietta Considers New Pre-K Program with United Way

MARIETTA — The Marietta School Board is considering a partnership with United Way of Greater Atlanta to host a new pre-K program for children and their caregivers.

During Tuesday's work session, Kim Blass, the district's chief impact officer, presented a proposal from United Way asking the district to host the organization's Learning Spaces program in Marietta as part of the Literacy and Justice for All initiative. Learning Spaces is a pre-K program that provides early learning and play sessions for children up to age 5 who do not attend a formal preschool program.

The goal with Learning Spaces is to promote school readiness for students and to provide support for caregivers.

"We're excited about the opportunity," Blass said of the program.

The proposed program will take place at three different sites including GraceLife Church, Woods/Wilkins Performance Learning Center, and YELLS Inc., all in Marietta. Each site will host weekly two-hour learning sessions between children, their guardians and program teachers. During these sessions, children and parents will have the opportunity to learn and interact with other families through playtime activities and story time. The curriculum for students will be provided by United Way, and Marietta City Schools will also offer reading coaching for students.

Families will be allowed to attend all three weekly sessions if they like.

Blass told the MDJ instructors with Learning Spaces will also give parents advice on what they need to do as their child's first teacher.

"While you are teaching and developing the child, you are also teaching and developing the parents," Blass said.

United Way will provide a $60,000 grant to the district to fund the program, Blass said. If approved by the board, Blass said they hope to start the program with about a dozen students in each session with hopes of it growing through word-of-mouth.

United Way provides Learning Spaces programs in Clayton, DeKalb, Douglas and Fulton counties. Blass said the organization asked the district to host its program in Marietta because they were impressed with their childhood literacy efforts.

Upon board approval, the district will start the program in early October with plans to run it through June. After the conclusion of its first year, the district will re-evaluate the results.