Parents and district leaders press to keep family resource center in preschool as superintendent outlines expansions

Parents and district leaders told the East Granby Board of Education they value the family resource center’s location inside preschool classrooms and urged the board to preserve that placement as the district expands preschool offerings.

Parent Morgan Bangle told the board the preschool-based resource center helped her son transition smoothly into school: "It allowed us to flawlessly transition into preschool for Eli. It was invaluable," she said during public comment. Dana Zelensky, who identified herself as a parent, said having the resource center in a school setting created connections to teachers and routines that are hard to replicate elsewhere.

Sarah Kleinman, who introduced herself as the district’s parent liaison, said the early-learning groups have been integrated with the preschool for nearly two decades and ‘‘maintaining these programs within all groups supports the district schools by encouraging family engagement from the earliest years, creating a strong pipeline into the preschool program,’’ she told the board.

In the superintendent’s report, the superintendent (speaker 6) said the district plans to expand preschool offerings toward a full-day model and that space constraints will require negotiating how the family resource center and preschool share classrooms. The superintendent said a chosen candidate for chief operating officer has been identified and will be announced publicly once the contract is finalized; the board earlier approved the COO contract during the meeting.

Josh Martin, introduced by the superintendent as director of people services, said he has worked with family resource centers for more than a decade and emphasized the benefits of hosting them in schools, calling school-based placement ‘‘a big piece’’ of family outreach and smoother transitions into preschool.

The superintendent also updated the board on several operational items that intersect with early-childhood services: a summer professional-learning series for administrators, an expanded PowerSchool analytics rollout, planned ALICE active-shooter training in the fall, and building-project work intended to make spaces ready for the fall. On nutrition, the superintendent described a no-cost food-service agreement with Bloomfield Public Schools that, the administration said, will provide hot, farm-to-table and grab-and-go options. The district estimated the arrangement could free roughly $60,000 in the current choice-tuition food budget; full-pay student lunches were cited at $4.65 and adult lunches at $5.

Board members asked the administration to continue reporting on space planning so the family resource center and an expanded preschool can coexist. The superintendent said staff will return to the board with more detailed plans and scheduling options before the new school year.