The makeover of a popular program at Amarillo High School worries parents that they will have to turn to a more expensive option for preschool next year.
Prekindergarten programs at Amarillo ISD
First priority for prekindergarten enrollment goes to families who meet one of six state criteria for the program, said Cristy Wilkinson, program director of early childhood education for the Amarillo Independent School District.
The six criteria are:
Child has a language barrier
Child is homeless
Child has a parent on active military duty
Child had a parent killed or injured while on active military duty
The Department of Family and Protective Services is the conservator of the child
Child's family meets annual income guidelines listed below:
Family of 2: $25,900
Family of 4: $39,220
Family of 6: $52,540
Family of 2: $3,004 monthly or $36,048 annually
Family of 4: $3,710 monthly or $44,520
Family of 6: $5,830 monthly or $69,960
Services provided in the 26 counties of the Panhandle for single parents working or going to school for at least 25 hours per week and for two-parent households where both parents work or go to school for at least 50 hours per week.
Early Head Start and Head Start, provided through Region 16 Education Service Centers
Contact: Sydia Aguilar at 806-677-5333 for Head Start or Lee Ann Brasher for Early Head Start, or, outside of Amarillo, contact the school district or Head Start center. Families qualify based on income guidelines, if they are on public assistance, have a child with a documented disability, or for a child who is in foster care or is homeless.
Children are eligible depending on their family's annual income:
Family of 2: $14,570
Family of 4: $22,050
Family of 6: $29,530
Also, visit  for information on child care providers from the Child Care Licensing division of the Department of Family and Protective Services.
Families for decades have sent their 3- and 4-year-olds to the Pre-Employment Laboratory Experience, or PELE, program at Amarillo High. The criteria for the program is broad enough to include middle- and upper-income families that typically pay $50 to $75 per child a semester. A private program can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars per year.
But the district is updating PELE in the wake of a state overhaul of career and technical education courses. The rewrite of state curriculum standards means the course must offer a more rigorous experience for high school students, said LeAnn Estep, Amarillo ISD program director for career and technical education.
Students who take the updated version of PELE, now dubbed Instructional Practices in Education and Training, will get a taste of what Amarillo ISD expects of prekindergarten teachers, Estep said.
Parent Jackie Betancourt sent her 6-year-old to PELE for two years. She saw Emmorie grow from a shy child to one who earned a lead role in a play at the end of two years. Now Betancourt's 4-year-old is in her first year of PELE, and she wanted her two youngest children to attend PELE when they were old enough.
"They really do try to make it fun," she said. "As soon as they start regular school, it's so much pressure."
But Betancourt, a 24-year-old stay-at-home mom and nursing student, doesn't know if her children will qualify for the district's new prekindergarten program. She's found few answers about applying or qualifying for preschool from the district, she said.
Next year, the preschool program at Amarillo High will follow the model being piloted by Caprock High School. Students in the course call themselves child-care professionals and refer to prekindergarten classes as the "learning laboratory." A similar course is in the works for Palo Duro High School.
Carolyn McMahan, a longtime teacher for the PELE program, will teach the updated version at Amarillo High, Estep said. McMahan will coordinate her class with a prekindergarten teacher at an elementary school, most likely Ridgecrest Elementary School. High school students will spend two days a week planning lessons and go to the elementary school to work with the young children three days a week. They will work with the children in small groups instead of the one-to-one ratio PELE provided.
Enrolling children in prekindergarten will provide the district with revenue necessary for possibly adding another prekindergarten teacher, officials said.
First priority for prekindergarten goes to families who meet one of six state criteria for the program, including limits on income, but the district has some space to accommodate children from higher-income families, said Cristy Wilkinson, program director of early childhood education. She's willing to help parents find options.
"We want the parents to have some choices and some high quality pre-k for their children," she said.
Some of McMahan's students said they worry the new course will not provide enough personal interaction with the preschoolers.
Senior Juliane Miller, 18, learned through PELE how to help young children understand new lessons and work through sour attitudes and strong emotions. Having one preschool student assigned to each high school student gives the young children a role model, she said.
"We just don't want to see this fall apart," Miller said. "We love it so much. It's been such a great experience. To miss out on it, it's sad."
Estep described the transition as continuing with tradition, but with an upgrade. She says the new course will have more structure, more coordination between high school classes and the district's prekindergarten classes, and ensure high school students learn new strategies and techniques to prepare 3- and 4-year-olds for kindergarten.
"We've got to make sure we're staying up to date," she said. "Sometimes we have to change."