LCFS Countdown to Kindergarten Program Featured in The State

The State Newspaper ran the following story about Lexington County First Steps' Countdown to Kindergarten initiative July 21, 2005.

When Donna Brown’s silver Honda turns off a gravel Gaston road and into 5-year-old Joseph Spires’ driveway, the soon-to-be kindergartner runs through the house exclaiming, “My teacher’s here! My teacher’s here!”

For an hour each week this summer, Brown tutors Joseph in skills that will help him succeed in kindergarten, like reciting the alphabet and singing nursery rhymes. Brown also chats with Joseph’s mother, Victoria Spires, in the family’s dining room and gets to know Joseph’s personality. (He really likes kittens.)

The visits are part of a kindergarten readiness program that has bloomed across the state this summer, including in Richland and Lexington counties.
Countdown to Kindergarten brings teachers into students’ homes to tutor and to foster relationships with students and their parents.

“You really get to know the child and where they’re coming from,” said Brown, who will be Joseph’s kindergarten teacher at Swansea Primary School in Lexington 4 school district this fall.
The program prefers to match participating students with their future kindergarten teachers when possible.

Countdown to Kindergarten is serving 60 students in Lexington County and 300 students in Richland County this summer. Each county has its own arm of First Steps, which in turn partners with area school districts to arrange the programs.

This is Countdown to Kindergarten’s first year in Richland County; Lexington County is serving an additional 50 students this year over last year. That’s due to groups taking advantage of state lottery revenues available to Countdown to Kindergarten programs that can raise matching funds.

It costs $3,100 to serve 10 students, said Jim Riddle, Lexington County First Steps executive director.

Joseph’s mother hopes Countdown to Kindergarten will ease her son’s transition to kindergarten.

“He’s a shy little boy, at first,” Victoria Spires said. “He’d probably keep to himself. He’s like his momma.”

Lexington 4 educators said the most powerful benefit of Countdown to Kindergarten, though, is the opportunity for teachers to build relationships with parents.

“We struggle with that every day in schools,” said Leslie Hightower, Swansea Primary School principal.

Wednesday, Brown told Spires that local groups would provide backpacks and perhaps new school clothes for Spires’ children. Spires sighed with relief at the news.

Brown is hopeful the early relationships with parents will make them more likely to approach her about needs and concerns for their children during the school year.

Both Richland and Lexington counties’ First Steps Countdown to Kindergarten programs want to expand next year if matching funds — and enough teachers — can be found.

In Lexington County, teachers work with 10 students and receive a $2,000 stipend for the 8-week program.

In Richland County, though, First Steps hoped to recruit 40 teachers to serve 400 students, but only secured 30 teachers for 300 students, said Rick Noble, Richland County First Steps executive director.

“We could have done more if we could have found more teachers, but we also understand that they have their summer alternatives,” Noble said.

While First Steps programs often focus on students from at-risk backgrounds, a state mandate requires programs to target all students. With funding and teacher supplies tight, priority is given to students who, for example, qualify for free or reduced-priced lunch (an indicator of poverty in schools), or students whose parents don’t have high school diplomas.