What’s New in Early Childhood

By Liz Walker and Maria Reynolds

The Wexford-Missaukee ISD has recently added two new positions to support Early Childhood Education. Liz Walker is an Instructional Consultant for Early Childhood. She has a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and has been a preschool and kindergarten teacher, a director of a Michigan School Readiness Program, and a K-12 Literacy Consultant at the WMISD. Maria Reynolds has assumed the new position, Special Education Supervisor. She will be addressing preschool issues in center based programs and in the local districts. Maria has 30 years of experience, including 20 years as a preschool consultant, Project Find Coordinator, and Infant Toddler teacher. She has a Master’s in Special Education with an emphasis in Early Childhood. WMISD staff have been working in collaboration with local schools and the community to support the WMISD Board Goal: “Within 3 – 5 years all children within WMISD service area will enter kindergarten with skills that will allow them to meet the needs of the new grade level content expectations”. With that goal in mind, the Early Childhood Leadership Team was developed last year. During the first year, the goals that have been accomplished include speech and language screening for all preschoolers, opening more preschool classrooms, providing professional development for preschool teachers, and developing a web page.