PRESCHOOL PROGRAM AT HMS

You may have heard that we have begun a preschool program for students at HMS. Let me provide some details.

Every public school district in the country is required to educate students with special needs beginning at age three. This can be done in a variety of ways. For the last few years, we collaborated with the Contoocook Community Center Preschool and met the needs of our special education preschoolers at that location. Oftentimes, the local elementary school contains an integrated preschool, which includes students with many different strengths and abilities. Next year we will have a fully integrated preschool and after our Preschool Open House this year we have our full compliment of students.

As a transition this past year, we had a limited amount of preschool students spending their mornings at HMS. In order to help them gain social interaction with a variety of children, part of their day was spent in a morning kindergarten class during non-academic periods such as snack, and recess. The majority of their time was spent in our newly fashioned preschool room on the first floor by the first grade classrooms.

Next year, we will have a fully integrated program, with choices for parents on which days they would prefer.

As always, if you have any questions about this new program, feel free to contact me.

-Bill Carozza