The new preschoolers arrived Monday morning at 301 Blane Drive, each wide-eyed and clutching an adult hand when they stepped off a bus or climbed from a family member’s car. They wore clean sneakers, fresh haircuts and backpacks that seemed a tad ambitious for such tiny bodies.
The fanfare greeting them — three high school cheerleaders, one very young and loud drummer and a red carpet leading from the parking lot into the gym — had been in the works for several days.
Principal Leigh Ann Stewart and her staff wanted to extend a big welcome for children and their parents at the new Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early Learning Center that houses preschool and child care programs. Just a few months prior, the early 1960s building was still Indian Hills Elementary School.
“This is my last little,” Joseph Bannan said of his 4-year-old son, Joseph Jr. The father brought his youngest for the opening day of preschool and lingered with him in the gym as children carried breakfast trays to long, squat tables.
Many of the preschoolers, who are ages 3 and 4, could be among local high school seniors graduating in 2038 and 2039.
Joseph Jr. took a seat with several boys and ate a graham cracker as the noise in the gym grew louder. His father bent down and kissed him before leaving.
As more parents filed in, MLK employee Paulette Robinson leaned from the school’s stage and asked each adult, “Are you happy or are you sad?” She invited them up on the stage for a pom pom for cheering or a tissue for tears, whichever they needed.
Robinson and two helpers also served muffins, doughnuts and coffee. They shot photos of parents and children in front of a “Back to School” sign.
Stewart said MLK employs 16 preschool teachers, 22 child care staff, three custodians and five cafeteria workers.
Many of the employees and volunteers who came to help on Monday have a prior connection to the building. Stewart did her student teaching at Indian Hills in 1994. Retiree Thelma Moore, who helped her sister Paulette Robinson serve coffee and doughnuts, was an Indian Hills teaching assistant for 33 years. Another volunteer, Barbara Meriwether, had worked in the school resource center.
MLK opened with 115 preschoolers. It also has 94 children enrolled in the Inspire Early Learning Academy, a child care program established last year mainly for children of the public school system’s employees and of several local industries that pledged $80,000 to help with startup costs.
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There are two preschool sessions, one from 8 to 11:30 a.m. and the other from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Inspire provides care from 5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday for children ages 2 to 5.
Barry Massie, who brought his 3-year-old son, Daylyn, to play drums with the welcoming crew, said the boy attends Inspire. He and his wife, who teaches in the district, pay $150 a week to send Daylyn to the program.
“This is perfect. It’s a great environment,” Massie said. “He’s learned so much.”
They would pay $200 or more for private child care in Hopkinsville that might not have the same level of academic enrichment, he said.
In Kentucky and across the country, parents face challenges finding quality child care options they can afford.
Accessible and affordable child care is a “top concern for the business community,” according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The child care search tool Winnie estimates that Kentuckians pay $800 to $1,200 a month for full-time child care.
“The COVID-19 pandemic brought child care as a workforce issue into the national spotlight, but the high cost and scarcity of child care options existed before the pandemic and continue to be a persistent barrier for parents to fully participate in the workforce,” states a June 2024 article published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Hopkinsville’s new MLK school serves preschoolers ages 3 to 4 in the city limits while four schools outside the city — Crofton, Sinking Fork, Pembroke and South Christian elementary schools — also provide preschool programs. Districtwide the school system is currently staffed for 440 preschoolers, and it has space for up to 560, said Johnna Brown, director of communications.
For years local preschool attendance has been restricted to lower-income families, to children who have developmental delays, and to children in foster care and homeless families.
But the Christian County Board of Education voted at its Sept. 5 meeting to expand preschool eligibility. Families that don’t qualify based on income or other eligibility factors will be able to pay $200 a month tuition to send their child to the public school system’s preschool. The application process can be started online.
While there are currently 115 preschoolers at MLK, the building has capacity for 240 children in preschool.
“We could almost double our enrollment,” said Stewart.
“I really want people to know what we are doing here,” she said.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
