ROCHELLE — At its March 11 meeting, the Rochelle Elementary School District Board of Education unanimously approved a Stepping Stones Preschool fiscal year 2026 transition plan that will see it expand the district's preschool offerings and utilize the currently-vacant May Elementary School building for that purpose.

Stepping Stones Preschool, located inside Lincoln Elementary School, currently serves 180 students and has a waiting list of about 40 kids. The district has a desire to serve students on the waiting list and recently received a preschool-for-all grant for two years (fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026) that made it consider expanding its offerings. 

May School at 1033 N. 2nd St. was closed by the school board before the 2021-2022 school year as the district shifted to an attendance center model due to declining enrollment and an increase in the district’s dual language program, which was previously only offered at Lincoln and Central Elementary Schools. The district was facing a half-full May School before the decision was made.

There are currently six preschool classrooms at Stepping Stones Preschool. It will be expanded to seven classrooms that will all be located at May School. The preschool expansion is planned to start on Aug. 19 at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year.

District Assistant Superintendent Tony Doyle said the seven preschool classrooms would have morning and afternoon classes at May School. Times for classes would change slightly to accommodate the flow of traffic and buses. Morning classes would meet from 8:30-11 a.m. or 8:45-11:15 a.m. Afternoon classes would meet from 12:15-2:45 p.m. or 12:30-3 p.m., Doyle said.

Two notable areas that are being modified for the repurposing of May School for preschool are bathrooms and the playground, which are seeing changes to accommodate younger, preschool-aged children. District maintenance and technology teams have begun work on updating what’s needed in the building.

Staffing changes for the preschool expansion will consist of the addition of one teacher and one classroom aide, district officials recently told the News-Leader. 

District officials are excited to reopen May School after four years of it being closed.

“The building is rich with the stories of the many students who have gone to school there over the years,” District Superintendent Jason Harper said. “The building also represents the generous spirit of the May family which has been important for the elementary school district.”

Stepping Stones Preschool Director Yazmin Nambo said the expansion will be able to serve all of the current students on the district’s waiting list. 

“This entire recommendation is founded in the aspirational goal to serve as many of our community’s youth as possible,” Nambo said. “By adding a classroom, we can serve all the current students on our waiting list. By expanding our services, we can better meet the needs of younger learners. In the end, the hope is to have more students ready to perform at kindergarten expectations when they leave our program.”

Harper said during the March 11 meeting that the expansion is a move in the direction of potentially expanding district services for children from birth to three years old in the future.

The grant program paying for the preschool expansion is funded by state dollars, which make it unaffected by current federal cuts to education. But, Harper said the expansion’s future will depend on whether the district continues to receive the grant. 

“We have been upfront in communicating that the expansion of this program is predicated on winning a state grant specifically designed to fund the expansion of preschool programming in underserved areas,” Harper said. “We understand that these funds may not always be available to the district, but feel it is worth expanding even to serve more students in the short term.”