Prince George’s County Public Schools

14201 School Lane • Upper Marlboro, Maryland 20772 • www.pgcps.org

John E. Deasy, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

September 28, 2007

Dear Parents:

The Prince George's County Public Schools Pre-K program is a state-mandated program for students that meet specific income-eligible criteria. We are especially committed to serving children in their boundary-based elementary school Pre-K program. While it is unfortunate that there are not many Pre-K students at Judith P. Hoyer ECC this year, we trust that you would agree it is best for the Pre-K students to be served in the schools they will be attending for K-5 or K-6. Some staff members, therefore, are being reassigned to serve eligible students at other sites. ALL eligible students in the Cheverly community, however, are and will continue to be served.

Maryland State Law requires that we serve all income-eligible Pre-K students beginning in SY 2007-08. Toward that end, Prince George's County Public Schools has been responsible for opening approximately 321 Pre-K schools in the past five (5) years. This we have done in an effort to prepare for a component of the Bridge To Excellence (BTE) Thornton Legislation that requires us to provide Pre-K to all income-eligible students. This year, we needed to open 89-91 Pre-K sites to meet the conditions of the law. Our goal is to situate our Pre-K sites close to, or in, the K-5 or K-6 school the child will attend. In the past few years, we have used the Judith P. Hoyer ECC as a "temporary facility" for Pre-K income-eligible students who would be attending other schools -- some nearby, and others somewhat farther away (e.g., Lake Arbor). In planning for the 89-91 sites needed this year, we made arrangements for students to be housed at their boundary school, except in a few instances where that was not possible (e.g., Glenn Dale students who are at Judith Hoyer).

Please be assured that Prince George's County Public Schools is not closing Judith P. Hoyer ECC. As this particular ECC currently does not have a set of boundaries, students are not routinely assigned there. Hence, the school has been serving program needs. There are ongoing discussions to improve all schools and Judith P. Hoyer ECC is critical to these discussions.

Thank you for supporting our efforts to meet the conditions of the law with regard to income-eligible students in Prince George's County.

Sincerely,

John E. Deasy, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

JED:bpm