Committee Recommends Silas Wood to House South Huntington Universal Pre-K; Board to Decide June 17

A committee charged with designing Universal Pre-K for the South Huntington Union Free School District recommended on Wednesday that the program be housed at the Silas Wood building, with staggered start and end times, before- and after-care and a dedicated building principal. The board of education will review the transportation committee’s findings on June 4 and is expected to consider a final vote at its June 17 meeting.

The UPK co-chairs, Doctor Hender and Doctor McCallion, told the board the recommendation followed a series of site visits and discussions that weighed classroom layout, bathroom access and traffic patterns. "When we looked at locations, we felt that the UPK was best served to be housed at Silas Wood," Doctor Hender said, citing the presence of bathrooms in all first-floor classrooms and the building’s prior use as a kindergarten center.

Committee members said the plan would start with classrooms on Silas Wood’s first floor — an initial capacity the committee estimated at roughly 18 usable first-floor classrooms, a figure the co-chairs said could equate to about 324 students if fully used — and keep young students from navigating stairs. To ease traffic, the committee proposed three staggered start and end times; the traffic study cited by the committee indicated a 20-minute window would be sufficient, though the panel recommended a 30-minute window to be conservative.

The committee recommended a minimum schedule of five hours per day and said the program should provide free breakfast and lunch to UPK students. Before- and after-care would be available, the committee proposed, with care beginning as early as 7 a.m. and the latest dismissal no later than 5:30 p.m. The co-chairs also recommended planning for one to three small, age-appropriate playground areas so classes could rotate access while complying with the state rule that only one class use a UPK playground at a time.

The co-chairs addressed special programs and supports in their recommendation. The committee expressed interest in offering music and physical education “specials” appropriate to preschoolers and discussed options for dual-language programming and special-education models, including co-teaching and integrated services. Doctor McCallion said support staff — social workers, behavioral specialists and itinerant therapists currently shared across buildings — would continue to serve the UPK population and could be centralized in the new site.

On funding, the district’s finance staff explained the UPK grant is calculated on a per-student basis and that, under current estimates, the district receives roughly $5,400 per enrolled student; committee members said the district would apply for applicable state grants and monitor for expansion opportunities. The co-chairs cautioned that the final funding picture depends on state allocations and noted the governor’s budget language remained subject to change.

Board members asked how classroom space on the second floor might be used; the committee replied the first floor would be the initial focus, and the second could later serve as office or support space. Members also pressed the committee on scheduling logistics, playground rotations and how specials would be scheduled; the co-chairs said those details would be finalized by the building principal once enrollment and exact class counts are known.

No formal vote on the UPK recommendation was taken Wednesday. The district’s transportation committee will present its findings at the board’s June 4 meeting; board members said they expect to consider the UPK recommendation, with transportation particulars, at the June 17 meeting.

Community members and staff on the committee recognized the UPK plan as a major expansion of district services and stressed the need for continued community engagement as scheduling and enrollment rules are finalized.