Ogdensburg school receives preschool grant

OGDENSBURG — The Ogdensburg Borough School has been awarded a $288,000 grant so that it can begin a preschool program, Leanne Paolazzi, supervisor of special education announced on Oct. 2.
"This is the largest competitive grant that Ogdensburg has ever received," she said. "This funding is thru the New Jersey Department of Education Division of Early Childhood Education."
The purposes of the grant is to have free all-day preschool. The district currently has part-time tuitiion-based preschool. There will be a limit of 15 students in each class and it will be fully funded by the state.
"Any parent that has paid tuition will be reimbursed, whhich I'm sure will be a great letter sent home this week," Paolazzi said.
Anyone in Ogdensburg can send their child to school ages 3 and 4. Paolazzi reported that Ogdensburg School is also accepting applications for the school year from other towns as well.
One of the main priorities in receiving the grant was that they wanted to make sure people that can’t afford to send their children to school can benefit.
Paolazzi explained that “the school will be advertising this information through the newspaper, signs will be put up in doctors’ offices, and the school will be reaching out to other organizations such as Project Self Sufficiency and the school will be advertising this information in the Ogdensburg newsletter that is sent out to the community. The state did ask to make a plan for future years and can possibly expand to three classrooms.
Paoazzi explained the school will consist of two classrooms and anyone in Ogdensburg ages three and four will have their applications accepted first. In addition Ogdensburg will be accepting applications from other towns as well. Paolazzi stated the school has 44 potential students that have applied. Three schools have applied.
“I’m thrilled to have it and I don’t mind doing all that hard work.” Paolazzi stated.
The program will start Jan. 2, 2019.