Local students will continue to have access to early childhood education after the Phil Hardin Foundation stepped up to fill a funding gap for Lauderdale County School District’s Pre-K classes.

 

The Mississippi Department of Education announced full funding for Pre-K classes would not be available for the upcoming school year due to budget shortfalls at the state level.

 

Karen Williams, director of curriculum for Pre-K through Fourth Grade, said the Phil Hardin Foundation learned of the shortfall and awarded the district a grant to continue offering the program.

 

“We are so very fortunate to have the Phil Hardin Foundation come through for us,” she said.

 

Lloyd Gray, executive director of the Phil Hardin Foundation, said the foundation learned about the funding shortfall and wanted to make sure the Pre-K services continued to be available for local children.

 

“We understood that the district had had a shortfall due to a cutback in their state funding for their Pre-K program, and we had kind of helped get the program restarted a few years ago and really value the importance of Pre-K/Four education,” he said. “It’s vital for the district to offer these services.”

 

Williams said the funding from the Phil Hardin Foundation will allow Lauderdale County School District to maintain its current Pre-K courses through the next two years.

 

“There’s no way we could do this without somebody being behind us to help us, to support us financially, because it takes a lot in order to fund these classrooms,” she said. “So we are beyond grateful to the Phil Hardin Foundation for helping us out with that.”

 

Gray said the foundation is glad to support the Pre-K programs for Lauderdale County students. With the programs secured for the immediate term, he said a clearer picture of future state funding will hopefully emerge and clarify what needs to be done long term to continue offering the service to area children.

 

“We hope that that will stabilize and solidify these outstanding programs that really are a necessity for a school district that wants to prepare its children as they should be prepared for kindergarten,” Gray said.