(Atlantic, Iowa) – Nishna Valley Family YMCA Executive Director Dan Haynes, today (Tuesday), responded to a comment made during the November 13th meeting of the Atlantic School Board, with regard to the Jack and Jill Preschool. As we reported, during that meeting, Atlantic School District Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnsen said the district’s pre-school numbers are down. She said also, that while the Jack and Jill preschool is free, they are “maxed-out” on capacity. Dr. Johnsen said the Atlantic Head Start pre-school is maxed-out too, but they could grow up to 20-percent. Anything more than that, she said, and they’ll have to find the space to teach those students, somehow.

Haynes says:

• Jack and Jill in the past has run 2-3 separate four-year-old classes depending on the demand. “This year we could see the numbers where going to be lower for this group so we decided to only run two 4-year-old classes. These classes have 18 in the am leaving 2 openings and 16 in the pm leaving 4 openings. These classes can have a maximum of 20 kids each. We are sure open for additional students.”
• Jack and Jill in the past normally runs two three-year-old classes. “This year,” Haynes said, “we have two classes again with 22 in the morning and 13 in the afternoon. We have room in our pm class for up to 9 more students.  Again, we are open for additional students here as well.”
• And, “After checking with Head Start they have two openings as well in their 4 year old class.”

Dan Haynes said also, “In other news, we were disappointed to get the cancellation notice of the MOU we worked on for our shared usage of the Wickman playground and Lincoln gym. We did removed our play things from the gym. We do get in the gym occasionally in the am when time allows and appreciate that time. Lunch, naps, snack, and wrestling doesn’t allow for us to use the gym any other time.”