Mendon‑Upton district draws preschool lottery; 7 spots filled for 3‑year‑olds, all 10 four‑year‑olds accepted

Liz Garden, principal of Clough Elementary School, and Dr. Frank Ailes, director of student support services for the Mendon‑Upton Regional School District, ran a recorded preschool lottery that drew seats for the district's three‑ and four‑year‑old preschool programs.

"And we are here tonight to do, the preschool lottery, and, we are gonna start with the 3 year old class," Garden said as the session opened. Dr. Ailes outlined the 3‑year‑old enrollment numbers: "for the 3 year lottery, we have 7 slots. We've had 16 parents that signed up," he said.

During the drawing, staff read the seven selected numbers aloud. Dr. Ailes read the sequence that will determine which families are offered the available spots: 12, 13, 8, 15, 4, 2 and 7. Garden said the district will email the families associated with those numbers to confirm enrollment and to detail registration next steps.

Garden noted the session was being recorded for families who could not attend and described the wait‑list process: if a drawn family declines a spot, the district will move down the registration list in order to offer the opening to the next family on the wait list.

On the 4‑year‑old side, Garden said 10 families registered and there are 10 available slots, so all registrants were accepted into that program; any subsequent registrants would be placed on a waiting list.

The district did not name individual children or families during the public draw. The session ended after hosts thanked participants and reminded families to watch for confirmation emails from the district.