While Baldwin County’s K-12 public schools navigated a period of budget uncertainty in 2015, the county’s pre-kindergarten program continued expanding, buoyed by a fresh round of state grant funding that pushed the number of local pre-K sites to a new high.
Alabama’s voluntary First Class Pre-K program has for years been recognized nationally for meeting quality benchmarks covering teacher training, staffing ratios and support services, and the state was also selected as one of 18 recipients of a competitive federal Preschool Development Grant. That momentum translated locally: Baldwin County grew from just six pre-K sites nine years earlier to 25 heading into the 2015-2016 school year, according to the district’s federal programs coordinator.
Each site serves 18 children and is staffed by one teacher and one assistant funded through the grants. In May, state lawmakers added $10 million to Alabama’s pre-K budget despite tight finances elsewhere, and Baldwin County’s share topped $400,000. Two non-public-school sites in Foley each received $120,000, while more than $80,000 apiece went toward an additional pre-K classroom at Foley Elementary and the first-ever pre-K program at Orange Beach Elementary. Pre-K programs in the Mobile and Chickasaw areas also received a combined $450,000 in the same funding round.
Orange Beach’s new program required extra creativity to get off the ground. Because the school doesn’t qualify for federal Title I funding, backers had to assemble support piece by piece, including a required $35,000 playground on top of the $80,100 grant. A state lawmaker and a local charitable fund together covered the playground costs, according to a parent volunteer who serves as the city’s liaison to the Baldwin County Education Coalition. She described the new classroom as a rare bright spot after voters had recently rejected a property tax increase that would have generated significant long-term funding for county schools.
Demand remains the county’s biggest challenge. With the Orange Beach addition, the district expects about 450 children enrolled in pre-K across its sites this fall, but at least 200 more remain on waiting lists, with the longest lines at larger sites in Bay Minette, Foley and Robertsdale. South Baldwin families without access to a local slot have often driven their four-year-olds to Foley to secure a spot, reflecting the shortage of pre-K seats on the lower part of the peninsula.
Officials say the program’s payoff shows up later, as children who attend high-quality pre-K tend to arrive at kindergarten better prepared. With roughly $1.1 million in combined grant funding now supporting the county’s 25 sites, school leaders say the expansion represents a meaningful step toward closing the gap between demand and available seats, even as waiting lists persist across the district.