During the Habersham County Board of Education work session Thursday, Superintendent Matthew Cooper and elementary school principals shared impassioned remarks surrounding the need for preschool in the county— and how ESPLOST 6 could fund it.
The ESPLOST, an Education Special Local Option Sales Tax, increases sales tax by 1 percent to fund the county’s school system. ESPLOST 5, which was to raise $35 million for Habersham’s schools, expires at the end of this year.
While the school board presents ESPLOST 6 as a renewal, every ESPLOST is a separate tax measure that can last up to five years. If approved by voters, Habersham County’s current 7 percent sales tax rate would remain the same; if voted down, the county’s sales tax rate would drop to 6 percent.
Cooper went over six talking points surrounding ESPLOST 6 with the board, but the discussion focused on the hopes to expand Habersham’s pre-K program with ESPLOST funding.
As of right now, the school board plans to allocate $15 million of the proposed $56 million ESPLOST budget to expanding elementary and middle school classroom space, and building early learning facilities for pre-K programs.
Cornelia Elementary School Principal Fran Blackburn encouraged the Board of Education to invest in preschool programs in Habersham schools.
“I will say that pre-K is a starting block for our kids,” Blackburn said. “It’s our kids that need it, those kids that speak Spanish, they come in, we can teach them more, they get ready for kindergarten, and they’re ready to go. It’s . . . a good foundation for our kids, and we definitely need a place for them all to be so that we can be consistent with out pre-K programs. It is so important that we’re consistent with what we’re doing.”
Blackburn says that consistency is key for the school district’s young learners, so that their learning melds with their next steps in their Habersham County education. Demorest Elementary Principal Connie Yearwood agreed, saying literacy is important to teach at that age to build a firm foundation.
“When you have those children that know how to do school coming to kindergarten, where they’re expected not to learn the letters and sounds, but to know their letters and sounds, [they are] able to read in kindergarten,” Yearwood said. “So if we can get in that firm foundation in pre-K, oh my gosh, we’ve got the battle won.”
It’s not just that the programs would offer a stronger foundation, according to the administrators, public preschool programs are something area families want and need.
At Demorest Elementary, Yearwood says they have 22 students enrolled in their pre-K program with 16 on their waiting list— and Cooper says waiting lists like that are across the board in the county’s elementary schools. But he says they can’t fund expanding preschool without ESPLOST.
“I believe as superintendent that this is something we need to really look at,” Cooper said. “It will be impossible just financially and from a space perspective— we do not have the space right now to expand pre-K. There’s no way without renewing ESPLOST that pre-K can be expanded.”
Cooper appealed to voters, saying that they should support ESPLOST on the ballot if they support preschool.
“We’re appealing to families out there that if pre-K is important, then so is ESPLOST,” Cooper said. “Supporting this is supporting the pre-K program in a large way.”
The vote for the Education Special Local Option Sales Tax will be during the primary elections on May 24.
