The Warren County R-III school district is looking at potential solutions to a lack of space for the district’s early childhood program.

During a discussion of the issue last week, Warren County R-III Superintendent Gregg Klinginsmith noted the district has an early childhood center, which is located next to the district office on Veterans Memorial Parkway. He referenced limited space in the building and other buildings in the district. There are pre-kindergarten classrooms at Rebecca Boone, Daniel Boone and Warrior Ridge elementary schools, Klinginsmith said.

There are currently some opportunities the district is not able to take advantage of due to lack of space, he added.

“One is a whole day developing preschool for four year olds,” Klinginsmith said. “So we can roughly get $250,000 revenue from the state if we had a program and if we had space. So our limitations are really space. Funding could be there.”

If the district proceeds with a new building, construction of a new early childhood center building would cost about $11 million, Klinginsmith said. The district has the bonding capacity for a no tax increase bond issue. However, the district is also concerned about community growth and whether building an elementary school will be necessary down the road, he noted. The district will have about $25 million available in April 2024.

“With all the new homes and everything coming in, we’re kind of just holding right now,” Klinginsmith said. “So really our timeline to do anything would be 2024.”

If the building was constructed, the earliest it would be in use is in 2025-2026, Klinginsmith said.

Early Childhood Director Emily Turner said the district currently has 25 children on a waitlist who will be attending kindergarten the upcoming school year. She estimated that is about a 10- person increase from last year, when they ended up with about 15 on the waitlist. She believes the district will only continue to turn away more families in future years. More families are aware of the programs they offer, she said.

“There’s definitely a need for pre-K,” Turner said. “This year, we specifically chose one of our classrooms to be pre-K. So they were able to focus on some of the specific skills getting ready to transition into kindergarten next year. And we’ve seen that pay off greatly for those students being able to be in the classroom. That’s focused on getting them ready for kindergarten.”

Turner does not believe staff would mind being attached to a school or having their own facility. The priority is to have all staff in the same space together, she said.

Daniel Boone Elementary School second grade teacher Hope Tinnin believes the elementary school has students that would have benefitted from a pre-K program prior to coming to kindergarten. She referenced delays the students still have coming into second grade, which they might not have had with earlier intervention.

“I know speaking to kindergarten students, we have some students who have not been a part of any program who don’t know how to use a pair of scissors,” Tinnin said. “Can’t identify their letters or write a name. And as a parent who had three little ones start kindergarten, I can’t imagine them starting kindergarten without having those skills.”

School Board Vice President Franci Schwartz said she believes it will be important for the district to communicate the need for more space to citizens.

Klinginsmith stressed that even though the district in the future will have the available funds, a building project would still need to be approved by district voters.

“No matter what we do and where we want to build, the people have to vote on it,” Klinginsmith said. “It’s not, ‘Ok let’s just write a check and do this.’ We have to get voter approval to move forward. Even a no-tax-increase issue isn’t a slam dunk.”

School Board President Ginger Schenck noted the board did a search of the area previously to try to find a structure that would meet the district’s needs. There were not many options, Klinginsmith replied.

The district will spend the next year gathering input from citizens and then will discuss how they want to move forward. The district is also looking into potential interim spaces with more options. No action was taken at last week’s work session.