BARNESVILLE — The Barnesville Elementary Preschool program received a gold star rating from the Ohio Department of Education for its creative curriculum and community outreach.

The preschool program has five classrooms with three classes for 4- and 5-year-olds and two afternoon classes for 3-year-olds, with one of them considered special education.

The program started in 2008 and since its inception, it has always been a top rated program, according to on-site coordinator Angie Fisher. Under the old rating scale, the ODE ranked programs on a one- through five-star rating but moved to a gold, silver and bronze rating. In October, the program received a gold star rating.

“I think that’s a positive thing for our district,” Superintendent Micah Fuchs said. “So, our preschool does an excellent job, and we’re just so proud of what they’ve been able to do.”

The program uses a creative curriculum supplemented with Heggerty and Wilson Foundations, which are phonemic awareness and phonics programs that provide a foundation for children to become great readers early on.

The preschool also provides a Lexia program, which is based on the science of reading, for children who are ready for it. Brittany Baker, Heidi Velas and Bridget Brooks are the teachers and Marie Stephen and Melissa Stitzer are paraprofessionals.

Fisher said Lexia gives students a step up because other preschools may not provide it.

She said the preschool program helps them learn a routine and experience less anxiety when they move on to kindergarten because they’re used to the building.

The program also provides a math curriculum and Handwriting Without Tears, that teaches them how to write their numbers.

“They’re getting all those foundations that are going to help them when they move on to kindergarten,” Fisher said.

The program also provides free field trips, supplies and free breakfast and lunch for students.

The program is funded through an Early Childhood Education Education Grant. It has criteria to achieve a gold star rating, such as what the program provides to the children. The ODE awarded the gold star for the program’s curriculum, what it provides to the children, assessments it’s using and providing extra help for students who need it by making referrals for them to get where they need to be.

Fisher said to keep growing, the program will build on something to see how it can improve.

“We will keep providing our students with the curriculum that they need and the services that they need to succeed,” she said. “So you just kind of build on the foundation every year.”

Fuchs said the school is always seeking ways to improve its curriculum, such as adapting the district goals through its one needs assessment into every grade level, including preschool.

Fisher said Barnesville schools are like a big family and everybody pulls together, wanting the best for their children. She and her coworkers want that also.

She noted the Barnesville Area Education Foundation helps the program in a lot of ways, such as providing books to benefit all children through a grant.

“People don’t realize how important that 3-5 development time period is for these kids,” Fuchs said. “And I think what they do is they prepare these kids for that when they are school age, so that transition is not as difficult and they have skills already developed that some students that don’t participate in preschool would not have.”

Fisher said this program helps the children learn skills to help them succeed in life, which is why it received a gold star.

“It provides kids with life skills, things that they’re going to need on a daily basis. And then also, that early success helps them to catapult into success in their learning career, as far as moving on to college and things like that,” she said. “The more that you give a child at an earlier age, they’re like a little sponge, it just helps them to grow and flourish.”