On Tuesday morning, Amanda Kelkenberg, the CEO of the Early Learning Coalition of Osceola County, stood before the VPS providers of 55 Osceola County early learning programs with wonderment.
“Every one of you sitting in this room representing your programs should feel incredibly proud of your designation as excellent in the program and program accountability component of the voluntary pre-kindergarten program,” said Kelkenberg. “We all know that this was a long time in development. It was a little nerve-racking, and you all nailed it.”
The VPS breakfast ceremony took place on the second floor of the ELC’s new location on East U.S. Highway 192, which they’ll officially cut the ribbon on Jan. 8.
But in the meantime, Kelkenberg said the VPS providers showed excellence in three critical areas such as program assessment, student achievement, and student learning gains.
“One of the things that we all know in this room, but not everybody else knows, is that this designation and the work that you do to support children’s development and readiness for kindergarten does not stop there,” Kelkenberg said. “We all know this is the most critical period. This is the most critical year for our children. So, you not only moved all of those children into kindergarten this year ready, but you have set them on pace, and you have set them with a foundation for success for the rest of their lives.”
ELC board member Julie Bauer said she feels honored to represent the VPS providers.
“I know that so many of you do so much alone in your classrooms, bringing in those materials, staying late, preparing at home, and how hard you work, because I see it firsthand in the school that I’m a director of, and the fact that the Early Learning Coalition of Osceola County has taken this time this morning to honor you is amazing,” Bauer said.
Kelkenberg said parents think that child care and VPK are babysitting, but it is a testament to equivalent standards to the K-12 school system.
“VPK has a very strong literacy component,” Kelkenberg said. “But additionally, VPK provides the social and emotional support that young children need.”
Kelkenberg said that children at VPK learn about routines, become more familiar with sitting in small groups, and experience turn-taking in a classroom setting.
“Introducing children to things like circle times or like those calendar activities that they’ll encounter in the K-12 environments, doing small group instruction, where children are working together in those small groups very intentionally, again, being able to kind of sit and hold their body still in space in those types of instructional spaces,” Kelkenberg said.
Bauer said the partnership shown Tuesday is essential for the children of Osceola County.
“I feel, personally, their logo, that puzzle, the glue that binds it together, is here,” Bauer said. “We’re all here. We’ve all partnered with all of these entities through the Early Learning Coalition of Osceola County.”
