Two Dothan preschools were recently awarded state funding through Alabama’s First Class Pre-K Program after going through Troy University’s Project Pre-K to K Transition.

Eastside Childcare Learning Center, located on Columbia Highway, and Pal-A-Roos Daycare, located on Hodgesville Road, are two of 122 new First Class classrooms throughout the state this fall.

TROY helped the two centers write their grant applications.

“With the Kellogg Foundation, we provided a curriculum, trained teachers, gave supplies and materials and things so they would have a foundation for their program,” said Dr. Cynthia Hicks, co-director of Project Pre-K to K Transition, which was funded by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. “With the First Class grant, that funding continues and even more so.”

First Class is Alabama’s state funded voluntary program for 4-year-old children, and the funding will help the two centers continue the work started by Troy.

This grant will fund a certified early childhood teacher along with supplies and other necessities.

“The idea is that 4-year-olds will have an opportunity for a quality education,” Hicks said. “Our job was to provide that transition. Both of our daycares at first didn’t want to pursue the grant, because they didn’t know much about them. We gave them the information they needed and helped them with writing the grants.”

Project Pre-K to K Transition left both daycares with curriculums that they can continue to use going forward.

“Our project supported leading them into the transition from pre-K to kindergarten, and the quality education within those daycares can continue on as long as they’re funded by the First Class grant,” said Project Pre-K to K Transition co-director Pam Wimbish.