With a goal of raising the number of children who are kindergarten ready, the Odessa Y Learning Center formed a partnership with Ector County ISD.
The center, for prekindergarten 3 year olds, opened six months ago at 1111 Pagewood Ave., the former location of Compass Academy Charter School, which is now at 5530 Billy Hext Road.
Y Learning Center CEO Crissy Medina said the center has a capacity for 150 children and they currently have 115-120. However, they are still enrolling.
She added that they have had some inquiries and enrollments since word has gotten out that the Y is serving prekindergarten 3 year olds.
Medina said children can start at any time.
Before the partnership with ECISD, Medina said they were trying to transition more toward learning center environments.
“So at the Y, we currently have our Texas School Ready program and we want it to be more than just childcare and just babysitting. We wanted children to continue to learn. It seemed like the perfect fit whenever this partnership came to be,” Medina said.
ECISD has helped streamline operations because the Y has never run a school before, Medina said.
“Fortunately, we’ve had our partners who are a phone call away. …” Medina said.
The Y and ECISD meet regularly to touch base, see if the Y needs anything and what they can do better.
“They’ve been really, really helpful to us,” Medina said.
She added that the Learning Center has implemented curriculum that ECISD uses, but it hasn’t been an adjustment on the educational side.
“… It’s been exciting, to say the least to just have this partnership and really enhance our program. They’ve given us the necessary tools to be able to do that and become more seasoned in teaching. They’ve definitely helped us with that,” Medina said.
She added that the center has gotten more interest from parents as a result of its educational bent.
“I think the biggest compliment we’ve gotten and what makes it all worthwhile is when you hear parents say, ‘Man, my child has learned so much just in the time that they’ve been here.’ I think that’s just a testament to the partnership,” Medina said.
She added that when children are learning, having fun and with children their own age, it helps them.
“And you can see that progress even from the first day until now,” Medina said.
ECISD Director of Early Childhood Beatris Mata said one of the biggest takeaways of the partnership is that the YMCA had the passion and knowledge of how to work with the youngest learners.
Mata said visiting the Odessa Y on University Boulevard, district representatives saw the Y was doing “so many great things already.”
“… This is just a different layer, but they were using Frog Street in the curriculum. It’s been kind of fun because it started from scratch. It’s just building upon what we’re doing, what they’re doing,” she said.
ECISD Early Childhood Specialist Natalie Rubalcado said with the Frog Street Threes curriculum, it often mentions joyful learning.
“They’re building the social-emotional skills through those daily routines just coming to school …,” which Rubalcado said is really helpful for young children.
By talking to their peers, interacting with adults and building vocabulary and language skills.
Medina said the first week they were open they had children crying when their parents came to pick them up.
“It was just so heartwarming for us, because we’re like, ‘Oh, they love it here.’ They want to stay with their friends and their teacher so that was great for us to be able to see that’s something that they’re enjoying as well …,” she added.
In class, teachers read books aloud, talk about vocabulary from the books and ask questions about what was just read, Rubalcado said.
“Just them being able to listen and being able to answer those questions is so important, especially when they get older,” Rubalcado said. “So we’re building on those skills. They’re already looking at the letters and talking about what they look like.”
There is a daily morning message where the children see what a sentence looks like, what a word looks like and count the words. There is a letter of the week, so they look for those letters in the morning message.
“They’re already matching those letters, building on those skills. (It’s) very foundational, but … when they get to kindergarten, if they don’t have that foundation, they’re struggling there,” Rubalcado said.
Medina said one of the advantages of the partnership is being able to participate in some of the programs that ECISD offers.
“We recently started the Bookworms program, where the child gets a book, so we’re going have somebody come and read to them. They have worksheets associated with it; then they get to take those books home, so I think that’s especially beneficial for these children to start really loving to read and loving to get books …,” Medina said.
Mata said there also is a chance to engage in professional development with the district and other community partners.
Medina said ECISD has invited their teachers and aides to participate in professional development, but the Y also has its own training.
“Our teachers do receive additional 24 hours of child care licensing training on top of the other training that they would receive …,” Medina said.
Ultimately, she said, they all want the same thing.
“… We’re striving for the same goal and they’ve been amazing partners throughout this process. We are very fortunate to be able to have them,” Medina added.
Rubalcado said there are training sessions called after the bell that last 45 minutes to an hour where instructional staff can learn about math and incorporating math for prek 3 and 4 year olds.
They also have offered courses just for them such as one before Christmas on phonological awareness. Rubalcado added that the teachers are eager to learn.
“They’re up there singing and dancing and learning so they can do that with their children,” Medina said. “It’s just great to see because then you know that they’re committed and they have that passion for children and their learning and they’re invested.”
Medina added that the Y conducts assessments on the students at the beginning, middle and end of the year to gauge their learning progress.
Having just completed the mid-year assessments, she said they are anticipating the results.
“… But just being here with the children and the teachers, you can already see some of … that progress being made with them,” Medina said.
Rubalcado said it goes back to social-emotional learning.
“… If they’re not prepared socially (and) emotionally when they get to kindergarten, they don’t even know how to sit in a chair and talk to a friend, or listen to the teacher. … So they’re already getting that social-emotional (learning), so that when they get to kinder, they’re … ready for learning,” Rubalcado said.
Medina said the children also are learning fine motor skills such as signing their names when they come in every day and you can see the improvement looking at the sign-in sheets.
“… I think that’s amazing,” Medina said.
She noted that the partnership has allowed the YMCA to extend its capabilities and resources to be able to help these children through special education if needed.
The center has nine classrooms and 14 staff members, including nine teachers.
“… We’re able to test them and then assess them and if they need some additional attention, or more trained teachers, then we’re able to move them into a setting where they can thrive,” Medina said.
She added that there are bilingual classrooms where students are assessed in English, Spanish and dual language.
In the future, Medina said the center plans to grow and include an afternoon session. “We’re hoping to be able to implement that in the near future,” she added.
Currently, the learning center has morning sessions. Medina said the children have the option to stay all day through what they call their transition classrooms.
“So they stay there and then we feed them and they have their nap and then go into their afternoon activities. We also have our after-school here. We pick up from about 23 area schools and bring them here to make it more efficient and easier for parents. We have an area allocated for additional classrooms for after-school resources for children that we’re bringing that are school aged,” Medina said.
Medina said they are also open for all-day care when ECISD is closed for breaks.
She expressed thanks to ECISD.
“I think one of the things that has made this partnership so successful is their commitment to making the partnership work and putting in those additional resources into the YMCA to help it thrive and really elevate our education,” Medina said.
Rubalcado said just building those relationships with the Y and the staff here, “We’re all like a big family now.”
