More than a dozen Peoria community leaders gathered with teachers and students at Valeska Hinton Early Childhood Center this morning in support of Pre-K education.
Valeska Hinton currently has more than 400 3-year-old pre-k through first-grade students. It also has a pre-k waiting list that surpasses its enrollment.
A proposal before the the Peoria District 150 School Board next week calls for Valeska Hinton to become a purely birth through pre-k center.
Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis participated in the so-called “walk-in” event.
“We have certainly seen that where adequate funding for early school, we’re not paying for it on the other end. Because the kids are staying school. They are getting good educations and good jobs and so on.”
The district plans to move five Kindergarten and first grade classes to their neighborhood home schools and fund one additional Pre-K class.
The Peoria Citizens Committee for Economic Opportunity plans to support at least two more Head Start classrooms at the Center with the possibility for up to four.