Pre-K students receiving tomorrow's education today

The town’s youngest students at Graniteville Pre-School may soon find that the sky is their limit thanks to a solid 21st century academic foundation provided by the faculty and staff at the school.

Maria Petronio-McAfee, Graniteville’s principal, is proud of the achievements her students and teachers are reaching together, and it shows. Petronio-McAfee spent 18 years with the special education department in the Providence school district.  A mother of an 18- and 20-year-old, she holds two master’s degrees and several teaching certifications and has been with the Johnston School District for the last five years.

Petronio-McAfee recently provided a tour of the Graniteville School to the Sun Rise, along with a detailed breakdown of the school’s mission and vision. 

“I love what I do and I love the staff and the children here. I feel lucky and blessed to be here,” she said. “It is a true pleasure to be in a place where we are supported by upper management, and the kids do truly come first. We’re really coming into the 21st century with our district.”

Following it’s closure as an elementary school several years ago, the building was re-purposed and reopened as a special needs school for preschool students aged three to five who, prior to going to kindergarten, qualified for an Individualized Education Program (IEP). Calling this system of substantially separate classrooms of learning an “antiquated, old idea instituted many years ago,” Petronio-McAfee said that the school has moved closer to inclusion, where classes have the same makeup as that of a kindergarten class.

“What we have done here is open an integrated and inclusive preschool program, so our makeup in our half day preschool program is seven children with IEPs and eight students that are typically developing peers,” she said. “When I first came here, we had 43 students in the entire school, both during the morning and afternoon sessions, and 40 of them were children with IEPs. Now, we have four integrated and inclusive classrooms that are morning and afternoon sessions, and we have one full-day Pre-K classroom that is considered a State Pre-K classroom. This classroom is two years old and is the result of a grant written by Petronio-McAfee, which is solely funded by the Rhode Island Department of Education.

Now the school’s enrollment is around 125 students and we have more typically developing peers than we do have IEP students.”

Petronio-McAfee believes her school is such a draw for families with young children because teachers there are highly qualified. All of the teachers hold two teaching certificates. Each teacher is certified as an educator in early childhood education in the areas of pre-k to second grade, along with another certification as a preschool special educator from birth to age five.

The school provides online assessment tools for each child. This formative assessment tool is called Teaching Strategies Gold and allows the teachers to track their progress of each child. The teacher will collect data on the appropriate developmental levels of the students. The data that is collected is in categories that include cognitive skills, language development, literacy, mathematics, creative arts, social emotional skills, physical health, motor development and science.

“Our teachers are creating lessons according to all of these standards, and when they do that they are providing substantially differentiated instruction for all the children with needs and without needs,” she said. “The teachers observe and collect data on each child’s individual performance and then input this data into the formative assessment program. Teachers review this data and reflect upon each child’s progress by printing Class Profile reports, individual children’s reports and objective by dimension reports. This information helps the teachers to find a child’s weaknesses and strengths and allows for the differentiated instruction that takes place in every classroom.”

Petronio-McAfee sees an added benefit with her staff having advanced certification and access to the newest methods in education. Teachers at the school are provided with access to professional development that is provided by the Center for Early Learning Professionals and Rhode Island Department of Education. 

“I really feel that because my teachers are dual certified they have a separate bag of tricks,” she said. “I see the value in professional development. It’s truly immeasurable what they come back with – the strategies that they acquire and the new skills that others may not know about.”

However, there is one misconception about pre-school that Petronio-McAfee hears about often and readily debunks.

“People think that preschool children just go to school and play all day. That’s absolutely not the case; they’re learning through play. It’s the intentionality of the activity that the teachers create and how that activity has a purpose that enables the child’s mind to grow and develop the needed readiness skills for kindergarten,” she said.

Much of the learning that takes place at the school is achieved by intentional teaching through play. Petronio-McAfee said she hears that the school’s special needs students with IEPs are functioning higher than the children coming into kindergarten with no pre-k or preschool experience.

The school is bright and clean and is equipped to meet the everyday challenges faced when caring for such a young audience. There’s a physical education teacher at the school that offers assistance with gross motor skills.  A full evaluation team is also available at the school. This team is comprised of a speech and language pathologist, an occupational therapist, a social worker, a physical therapist and a school psychologist. This team of professionals is able to assist families with any concerns they may have for their child’s physical and emotional health. 

Graniteville offers enhanced bathroom facilities, a school nurse and a family resource center that is open to parents throughout the entire school day. A team of professionals offers parent workshops in this room that parents can attend to gather more information on their child’s social and emotional growth, cognitive growth and physical growth and development.

The school also provides two to three screening days per month, through the child outreach program. Parents may take their 3-, 4- or 5-year-old child for these screenings by contacting the head child outreach screener at the school.  

The school is also equipped with a cafeteria and a newly installed handicapped playground recently donated by Mayor Joseph Polisena. Whether a typically developing peer or a student on an IEP, the school and staff at Graniteville are equipped to meet the needs of today’s students.

“We need our typically developing peers. The compassion that they learn, the responsibility they acquire and the leadership skills they develop help them acquire the readiness skills they need to lead when they go to kindergarten,” said Petronio-McAfee. “They’re prepared and know how to wait their turn, know how to share, know what a structured schedule is, learn to care for themselves, make choices and have improved language skills. Simply put, they are leaders in the kindergarten setting,” she said.