Preschool expands to 60 students

Sixty students are starting free full-day preschool in Hardyston Township Public Schools this month.

The program is more than doubling in size, and students who previously attended for a half-day now may take part in the full-day program.

During the next five years, New Jersey’s Preschool Expansion Aid (PEA) will allow the district to include all 3- and 4-year-old children in the preschool program, for a total of about 120 students.

Since PEA was approved for the district by the state Department of Education in the fall, Hardyston administrators have been hiring teachers, teacher assistants, paraprofessionals, a custodian and a social worker as well as ordering furniture and making improvements to get the rooms ready.

Transportation and lunch services also were arranged for the preschoolers.

Hardyston has contracted with William Paterson University to ensure that the districts meets the gold standard for preschool instructional delivery, Chief School Administrator Mike Ryder said.

He pointed out that Hardyston has been preparing for an increase in students for several years, using capital and maintenance reserve funds to fix the oldest roofs; install new boilers; upgrade the main office’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning; fix drainage issues in the parking lot; connect to the municipal water supply; and regrade and repave the parking lot.

The parking lot project alone cost $1.7 million.

“All of those improvements came as a result of having an efficient operating budget over the past 10 years and being able to save money and not need to ask taxpayers to pay more in the form of a referendum,” he said.