Plymouth preschool program reports enrollment growth, space and staffing strains; $494,000 CPPI grant in place

Plymouth — Denise Tobin, principal of the Plymouth Early Childhood Center, told the School Committee on June 2 that enrollment and special-education needs at the district preschool have increased substantially and that the program is approaching its physical and staffing limits.

Tobin said the preschool served about 292 students as of April 30 and had 197 active individualized education programs, and she outlined the center’s mix of classroom models and staffing changes the district has made to accommodate growth. "We have 133 in our integrated classrooms, 27 substantially separate for a total of 160 special ed spots," Tobin said, and added that the district has created additional teacher and paraprofessional positions to add seats.

The preschool operates an integrated model that limits class size to 15 students, with up to seven students with IEPs and eight "peer" students from the community in each classroom, Tobin said. To expand capacity the district added four teachers, creating 34 additional IEP slots and about 40 community peer slots, and opened a satellite classroom at Manomet Elementary.

Why it matters: The preschool’s growth affects placements, special‑education timelines and early-year transitions into kindergarten. Tobin said the district is using a mix of in-district classrooms, a Manomet satellite classroom, Head Start partnerships and a state-funded Community Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI) grant to serve students in the community while avoiding overfilling school-based classrooms.

Supporting details: Tobin described the CPPI award — $494,000 over two years — and how the funds are being used. "Over the past two years, we have been awarded $494,000 to do this grant," she said. She provided the grant breakdown: about $325,000 went to salaries and roughly $87,000 to fringe benefits and travel, leaving limited funds for other expenses. The CPPI team is currently servicing 18 children in community settings, Tobin said, and performs community screenings, evaluations and related services so some children can remain in full-day Head Start programs the district does not provide.

Tobin also described service staffing: the center has 13 teachers (12 at Peck, one at Manomet), 24 paraprofessionals (some hours were increased this year), multiple speech therapists, occupational and physical therapy staff, a full-time registered behavior technician and shared BCBA time. She said one special-education department head moved from part-time to full-time this school year to help manage IEP transitions and compliance timelines.

The presentation covered curriculum and transition work: teachers attended kindergarten classrooms to improve alignment, three teachers joined a South Shore consortium to develop inquiry-based units, and staff are piloting Heggerty phonemic-awareness instruction and a pyramid model for social‑emotional support. Tobin said the team had completed dozens of special-education evaluations and initial-team meetings to meet compliance timelines, and that staff were under stress from the workload.

Questions and parent outreach: Committee members asked what the preschool would need in a "perfect world." Tobin said an evaluation team dedicated to assessments would free staff to focus on direct student services. She also described parent trainings the program provided this year — behavior basics, picky-eater strategies, toilet training and self‑regulation — and a community-provider series to share classroom strategies with local childcare providers.

What’s next: Tobin said there are wait lists for both Peck and the Manomet satellite and that the committee will see a refined preschool recommendation at a future meeting. She urged continued investment in staffing and space to keep up with demand and the complexity of students’ needs.

Ending: Tobin closed by thanking preschool staff and community partners for supporting students with complex needs and said the district will continue to pursue space and staffing changes to meet demand.