Genesee Preschool

The Genesee School District preschool is a tuition-based preschool operated as a service to the community. What began as a grant-funded program in 1992 transitioned to its current format in 1994 following the completion of the grant.

Idaho does not fund regular education preschool programs. Interestingly, it is against the State Board of Education rules to use state funds for a regular education preschool and it is also against the rules to transport regular preschool children on yellow school buses. In spite of these issues, the community has supported our preschool. Meeting three afternoons each week, the preschool follows an approved early childhood education curriculum to prepare students to successfully enter kindergarten both academically and socially. The preschool is taught by a certified and highly qualified teacher - Mrs. Gehring.

The District charges $125 per month for preschool tuition. Our attempt is to run this program at break-even. Currently we are not covering all the costs with tuition, but the benefits of having well-prepared students is an investment that benefits both the students and the District. It benefits the District by reducing future costs of remedial and/or special education. Numerous individuals have questioned why we cannot run this preschool entirely using grant funds. That is a excellent question. The answer is simply that grants are targeted at specific populations. The vast majority of preschool grants target low-income, minority students neither of which Genesee has in great numbers. Further, grants are generally intended to offer "seed" money to start programs with the entity eventually taking full fiscal responsibility.