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CHILDREN’S VEGETABLE GARDEN BURGLARIZED

authorities3The crime reports below were provided by the Red Bank Police Department for the period of June 24 to July 1, 2011. This information is unedited.

Criminal Mischief occurring between 6-27-11 and 6-28-11 at Monmouth Street-business. Victim reported that unknown person(s) broke window in business. Ptl. Michael Zadlock.

Theft occurring at West Bergen Place between 6-28-11 and 6-29-11. For the past several months’ young children of the Head Start Program have been planting vegetables and maintaining them in an enclosed pad locked area behind the building.

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RED BANK CRAMS FOR MORE PRE-K SPACE

pre-k-paintPre-kindergarten student Leslie Herrera at Red Bank Primary School. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Demand for Red Bank’s heralded pre-kindergarten program is spiking, and the school district is on the hunt for more space — and money — to offer every three- and four-year-old in Red Bank the chance to attend.

Superintendent Laura Morana said she’s involved in serious discussion and has a “pretty good lead” to add four more classrooms at a sixth location for the borough’s scattered pre-k classroom setup to accommodate a waiting list that precluded 76 three-year-olds from getting into the program in the 2011-12 school year.

“If we can get four more classrooms then everyone in Red Bank will have the opportunity,” she said.

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PRE-K AT THE LIMIT, AND LIKELY TO STAY

pre-k2Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction, John Bombardier, with a pre-k student. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

After two years of growth, the number of children in Red Bank’s lauded pre-kindergarten program is likely to stay static next school year, a direct result of the state’s dire budget situation.

“I don’t know that we’ll be able to expand, but we expect we’ll have the same number of children for next year,” Superintendent Laura Morana said.

Now taking up residence at various locations throughout the borough, the early education program tailored to three- and four-year-olds is at capacity, with 238 students, plus a waiting list.

And Morana can’t stop singing the praises of the state-funded initiative, in which only five school districts in the state were selected to participate.

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HEAD START PLANS MOVE TO FORMER SCHOOL

ps5-head-startThe upper floor of the former P.S. 5 has been the home of S.O.M.E. Architects for the past two years, but the ground floor has largely remained vacant. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Red Bank’s former PS5 is about to go back to school.

The borough zoning board last week gave preliminary approval for Acelero Learning to set up its Head Start pre-K program on the ground floor of  the former public school at 144 Drs. James Parker Boulevard.

Acelero officials say they hope eventually to expand the program into the second floor, which is now occupied by S.O.M.E. Architects under a lease with a partnership that bought the building three years ago from the Community YMCA for $1.3 million.

Acelero officials, who’ve run the program in the basement of Mt. Zion House of Prayer since 2005, say they have been looking for years to move into a place that would allow it to cut down, if not eliminate, an enrollment waiting list.

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