Youngest students get ready for school

Michael Woodward

GETTING READY - Sandra Garcia surrounds herself with preschoolers and strawberries as project coordinator of school readiness at Happy Valley Primary.

“I don’t collect strawberries, they collect me,” Sandra Garcia said of her collection of 700 strawberry-related items.

As the project coordinator of school readiness at Happy Valley Primary, Garcia said that the children used to refer to her First 5 room as the strawberry room.

“It’s nice. It gives the First 5 program an identity,” Garcia said.

The First 5 program is only two years old at Happy Valley. It coordinates between Head Start, the Children’s Center and Happy Valley Primary to improve school readiness. Before receiving the $50,000 First 5 grant in 2005, Garcia said that there was not a strong connection between the preschool options and the primary school. Because of the grant, the three institutions now meet every six weeks to talk about education standards.

Since that time, Garcia said that children and 159 adults have been “touched” by school readiness. That includes attending various classes for parents or activities for children and receiving the First 5 newsletter.

“We’re connecting kids to the school before they get here,” Garcia said. “Everything they used to do in kindergarten they do in preschool now. Kids that don’t get to go to preschool miss that whole link. It’s hard for them going to kindergarten with kids who have been front-loaded with all this curriculum.”

The free school readiness programs are geared to prepare children socially, emotionally, physically and academically for school. This involves free health screenings, field trips, music classes, public assistance referrals, Raising a Reader and therapist-led parenting classes like “Discipline that Works.”

Garcia has lived in Shasta County for 21 years and has raised three children here.

“The community knew me well before I got the First 5 job, which has helped me tremendously,” Garcia said.

She worked long hours making frames for Northwest Galleries before her love of school and children made her change jobs. She first applied for a physical education job at Happy Valley Primary. They gave the job to someone else, so Garcia took another job with the school doing lawn duty.

“I didn’t have the experience, so I thought the lawn job would be a foot in the door,” Garcia said. “She quit in a month and they gave me the job. They should have hired me in the first place.”

Since working as a P.E. teacher for 7 years before heading the school readiness program, Garcia has become very attached to the school and the children.

“I want to be at school — I’m in my spot. It’s a very secure feeling,” Garcia said. “If I stayed here ‘til I retired, I’d be happy. The great thing about Happy Valley is we all work together and no child is a number. It’s not just the teachers, the secretaries know every one of those kids.”

Parents in the Happy Valley School District with children younger than five can find out about school readiness programs from Garcia by calling 357-2131.