Lack of enrollment may close the Career Center Tot Spot preschool

Don Reid, Coldwater Daily Reporter
·2 min read

Branch Area Career Center Tot Spot preschool program manager Teresa Gage received notice Wednesday that if the 40-year program does not meet enrollment minimums by Aug. 30 she'll be let go.

The Branch County Intermediate District board approved the recommendation of Superintendent Kris Jenkins, who said only two 4-year-olds are enrolled in the morning class and none in the afternoon. There needs to be a minimum of eight in each session.

The Tot Spot preschool is built on the backside of the Branch Area Career Center.
The Tot Spot preschool is built on the backside of the Branch Area Career Center.

Located inside BACC, Tot Spot “is really the lab for the education programs,” Jenkins said. “Having a preschool program attached to the education professions program allows those kids to go in and practice being teachers.”

BACC provides career training for junior and senior high school students for the Bronson, Coldwater, and Quincy school systems.

Jenkins said the change to two half-day programs may be the reason for low enrollment.  When the switch came, enrollment dropped, the superintendent said. “Transportation may be another issue,” Jenkins said.

The morning session runs from 8:15 to 11:15 a.m. and is free under the state-funded Great Start Readiness Program.

The afternoon would run from noon to 2:30 p.m. Tuition for the afternoon is based on the Federal Poverty Level.

Children must be 4 by Sept. 1 of the enrollment year.  

Superintendent Chris Jenkins
Superintendent Chris Jenkins

Jenkins said splitting the program into two sessions for the high school students in education was necessary.

Junior and senior high school students attend BACC for half a day from their community schools.

If the preschool teaching occurred in the morning, then those in the afternoon missed out, and the reverse.

Although the program was a preschool education facility licensed under the state, many parents considered Tot Spot a partial daycare facility.

The education program at BACC is full of students who want to work in education.

“The program managers are going to have to put those students out in other preschool programs, and other classrooms for their on-the-job training,” Jenkins said.

Only some of the students will continue to get education degrees. The superintendent said some take jobs with the local school districts and BISD as paraprofessionals upon high school graduation.

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---Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com. 

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Lack of enrollment may close the Career Center Tot Spot preschool