NORWICH – Forming a community alliance with the local YMCA facility to offer education to children as young as four, the Norwich City School District says the first year of the program is nicely underway.

Dara Lewis, Stanford J. Gibson principal, says each year the state allots funding to the district to form a community collaboration to offer the Pre-K program. “Finding a facility that can meet the same standards as a school district has been hard in the past,” said Lewis. She says for the community organization to receive funding, its curriculum and standards for staff have to meet the same guidelines as the school.

For the first time in roughly eight years, the YMCA, working closely with Lewis, developed a program that meets the required standards. “Jamey Mullen, from the Y, and I spent many hours this summer getting the program designed,” said Lewis.

The program is an extension of the school-based pre-K program, however, whereas the curriculum matches that of the school, the daily routine, scheduling and activities are designed by YMCA Pre-school Director Christine Callea and her staff.

Callea, a certified teacher, took over the nursery school and pre-school classroom at the YMCA before the start of the school year. She explains the YMCA has always had a membership-based nursery school and pre-school classroom, but with the additional funding and the partnership with the school, the pre-school is now a free pre-K program.