OXFORD — Superintendent Rick Colpitts told a U.S. Department of Education senior policy advisor that despite lacking financial affluence, the SAD 17 school district programs, including its pre-kindergarten program, are fully supported by its eight member towns.

“It’s the municipalities that unify us. We’re all one. We are a rich school district,” Colpitts told Steven Hicks from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Early Learning Thursday morning during a visit to the Oxford Elementary School.

Hicks met with school and state officials, representatives of the Paris-based Community Concepts and others to see how the pre-kindergarten program is working. It’s a collaboration between SAD 17 and Community Concepts.

Two years ago, the district received a $1.2 million federal grant to allow preschool expansion from two or three days a week to five days a week in a three-year pilot program.

At the time, SAD 17 was serving 140 pre-kindergartners two or three days per week in four classes in Norway, Hebron, Waterford and West Paris. Five other classes — one in Norway, two in Paris and two in Oxford — were being run by Community Concepts, which follows the Head Start model.

This year, eight pre-kindergarten classrooms in five of the elementary schools are providing all pre-kindergartners with comprehensive Head Start services involving the entire family.

Colpitts said the program links all families and the classrooms through home visits and establishment of family goals.

Kim Bessette, Community Concepts’ early intervention and education program manager, told Hicks that Oxford Hills is a community that depends on its neighbors.

“The collaboration has allowed us to spread into a larger community to spread the word (about the pre-kindergarten program),” she said.

Hicks comes from a family of teachers and was an early childhood teacher for 20 years. His visit is part of the department’s tour to spotlight pre-kindergarten expansion grants and to raise awareness of high-quality pre-kindergarten programming.

He read the book “Llama, Llama, Mad At Mama” to pre-kindergarten pupils and talked with them about how they could relate to the book. 

The district hopes the pre-kindergarten program will continue after the grant expires.

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