The teacher shortage has hit preschools, and fewer preschool teachers are causing class sizes to stay small.
"We're at a point right now where we're not turning people away so much because our classes are so full, we're at the point where we're starting to turn people away because we don't have the staffing that we need," Melissa Guanciale, the director of the John Wesley Early Learning Center, said.
Guanciale said if she could find another preschool teacher, she could add at least one more entire classroom. For now, though, the Learning Center has three classrooms with about 10 children each.
"We love keeping it small because it gives the children a chance to have more of the one-on-one attention that they need to help prepare them for kindergarten," Guanciale said. "The teachers can spend more time with them helping with fine motor skills or working on penmanship and that kind of stuff."
The small class sizes also ensure the teachers don't get overwhelmed with too many children.
"If I have an extra person in the classroom with my teachers, I can then open up those extra spots and be able to have more kids in our school building, which obviously fills it full of more love and laughter," Guanciale said.
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