Board approves early-childhood grant awards and MOUs to expand pre-K seats

At the July 10 Committee of the Whole, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board approved a set of early-childhood grant awards and memoranda of understanding to expand high-quality pre-K seats and to support the early-childhood community network.

The board approved LA 4 C corp grant funding of $7,705,980 for high-quality pre-K instruction; a community-network lead agency grant of $371,831 to support the East Baton Rouge early-childhood community network; a Ready Start Network grant of $100,000; and an Early Childhood Education Fund grant of $41,126 to provide tuition assistance for birth-through-3 programs. The items were presented together as item D2 and approved by motion and vote.

Under item D3 the board approved memoranda of understanding to expand early-childhood seats with community partners and specified award amounts: Greater Baton Rouge Academy ($83,700); Kiddoscope ($55,800); Young Scholars Academy ($78,120); Little Dreamers Christian Academy ($111,600); Justus Childcare of Baton Rouge ($111,600); God’s Little Angels Childcare Development Center ($55,800); Impact Charter School ($111,600). The funding source reported for the MOUs was the C sub j P card LA 4 grant.

No public commenters spoke on the items, and board members moved and approved the grants and MOUs on recorded votes.