Education Before Pre-K!
Donation protected
Hello we are Anika and Bonnie and we are High School teachers in a high poverty and high minority school in Lafayette, Louisiana. Together we have a combined teaching experience of 19 years. Anika has a Bachelor's Degree in Secondary Education with a Major in Mathematics and Finance, a Master's in Curriculum, and will receive her Master's in Administration and Leadership in February of 2015. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Secondary Education with a major in English and Speech, a certification to teach Early Childhood Education, and will receive my Master's in Administration and Leadership in December of 2014.
We joined education because we wanted to change the lives of our students, as do most teachers. Having worked in both the private and public sector in several cities around the state together and we repeatedly face the same problems: literacy and math deficiencies in our students. These problems can be traced all the way back to pre-school and kindergarten with basic reading, vocabulary, subtraction, and addition skills. By the time our students reach us in high school we feel that they have been underserved in the realm of education.
Louisiana offers programs for children ranging from birth to four years old in order to provide students with a head start for kindergarten. This is great in theory but there are not enough spots for the number of students who fall into that age range. Having a 24-month-old son who can speak in sentences and identify letters, shapes, numbers, and colors is amazing. The criteria for enrolling my son into the programs offered by the parish are ones that I do not meet because of my level of earned income. The last criterion excepted is families above a certain level of income. Logic behind this is that children from lower income families need more exposure to academics than children from higher income families because they cannot afford to expose their children. This has some basis in fact; however, families that have exposed their children to academics at an early age still want their children to have a chance at early learning with a curriculum.
My son is on a waiting list of 14 students for the only true pre-school for 2, 3, and 4 year olds that is not a day care or run by the state. Sure we can find early learning centers that are run by retired certified teachers, but essentially they are day cares that care for the children from 6am to 6pm. Anika and I are not interested in running a child care center; we are interested in running a true pre-school.
Our concept is simple: tuition is affordable, classes are curriculum based, certified teachers and paraprofessionals are in each classroom, and students of all backgrounds are able to get a quality education that will truly prepare them for public or private school Kindergarten. Students will use technology to develop reading and language skills, along with manipulatives for math skills, song and dance for motor development, problem solving through play for metacognitive thinking skills, and interaction with peers to develop social and emotional skills. Our goal is to have each student leave pre-school 4 fully ready to enter kindergarten at the age of 5 with a 2,000-word vocabulary and reading on a kindergarten level.
Why are we only asking for $15,000? We understand that creating a school will cost much more; but in order to establish our school we need to have some initial start up funding. We need $7,000 to secure our school site for the first month, website development will cost $4,500, name registration is $500, and we need approximately $1,000 for someone to review and edit our business plan, and $2,000 for marketing and advertising. With these initial steps in place, Anika and I can present a business plan with a secured location and a roster of students to investors and banks in our area for further financing to fulfill our dreams of changing the lives of students. The 2015-2016 school year will be the agent of change for many families in Lafayette and surrounding areas looking to provide their young children with a quality education prior to Kindergarten.
Thank you for your time and donation,
Anika and Bonnie
We joined education because we wanted to change the lives of our students, as do most teachers. Having worked in both the private and public sector in several cities around the state together and we repeatedly face the same problems: literacy and math deficiencies in our students. These problems can be traced all the way back to pre-school and kindergarten with basic reading, vocabulary, subtraction, and addition skills. By the time our students reach us in high school we feel that they have been underserved in the realm of education.
Louisiana offers programs for children ranging from birth to four years old in order to provide students with a head start for kindergarten. This is great in theory but there are not enough spots for the number of students who fall into that age range. Having a 24-month-old son who can speak in sentences and identify letters, shapes, numbers, and colors is amazing. The criteria for enrolling my son into the programs offered by the parish are ones that I do not meet because of my level of earned income. The last criterion excepted is families above a certain level of income. Logic behind this is that children from lower income families need more exposure to academics than children from higher income families because they cannot afford to expose their children. This has some basis in fact; however, families that have exposed their children to academics at an early age still want their children to have a chance at early learning with a curriculum.
My son is on a waiting list of 14 students for the only true pre-school for 2, 3, and 4 year olds that is not a day care or run by the state. Sure we can find early learning centers that are run by retired certified teachers, but essentially they are day cares that care for the children from 6am to 6pm. Anika and I are not interested in running a child care center; we are interested in running a true pre-school.
Our concept is simple: tuition is affordable, classes are curriculum based, certified teachers and paraprofessionals are in each classroom, and students of all backgrounds are able to get a quality education that will truly prepare them for public or private school Kindergarten. Students will use technology to develop reading and language skills, along with manipulatives for math skills, song and dance for motor development, problem solving through play for metacognitive thinking skills, and interaction with peers to develop social and emotional skills. Our goal is to have each student leave pre-school 4 fully ready to enter kindergarten at the age of 5 with a 2,000-word vocabulary and reading on a kindergarten level.
Why are we only asking for $15,000? We understand that creating a school will cost much more; but in order to establish our school we need to have some initial start up funding. We need $7,000 to secure our school site for the first month, website development will cost $4,500, name registration is $500, and we need approximately $1,000 for someone to review and edit our business plan, and $2,000 for marketing and advertising. With these initial steps in place, Anika and I can present a business plan with a secured location and a roster of students to investors and banks in our area for further financing to fulfill our dreams of changing the lives of students. The 2015-2016 school year will be the agent of change for many families in Lafayette and surrounding areas looking to provide their young children with a quality education prior to Kindergarten.
Thank you for your time and donation,
Anika and Bonnie
Organizer
Anika Breaux
Organizer
Lafayette, LA
