Federal stimulus money will enable Superintendent Tom Ward to do what he hoped to since SAD 21 began planning for a new elementary school: Establish a prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds.

And with the merger of SADs 21, 43 and 39, 4-year-olds from Rumford to Buckfield will have a chance to take part in the program.

“This couldn’t have been any better timing,” Ward said Monday afternoon after a trip to Augusta to learn about educational funding.

Ward is the first superintendent of Regional School Unit 10, also known as the Western Foothills School District.

Funding the program

SAD 39 has a prekindergarten program for 40 youngsters two days a week, Ward said, and it will continue.

Ward had hoped to set up a program in two rooms of the recently completed Dirigo Elementary School in Peru. The school was designed with that plan in mind.

But local funding did not come through.

The two years of federal funds beginning this coming fall changes that. When the federal money dries up, state taxpayers will pick up the costs of serving about 40 youths.

In SAD 43, Ward said he is working with the Headstart Program at the Chisholm School in Rumford to set up a classroom. A second classroom has not been identified, Ward said. When it is, the two classrooms will employ two full-time teachers and two part-time educational technicians.

Two teachers and two educational technicians will also be employed at Dirigo Elementary School for the program.

Ward said the SAD 39 prekindergarten program will serve as a model.

He’s not sure of the cost to set up the program, but once funding is announced, parents can begin applying for a space for their child.

Ward said the program is the first of several he expects to be launched as a result of the federal stimulus package.