Bridging the Gap

BY AMBER BOWMAN

For decades, research has revealed that children with access to high-quality early childhood education enter kindergarten more prepared, with higher levels of proficiency in math and reading. Seventy percent of 4-year-olds who participate in pre-kindergarten programs are more likely to graduate high school than those who do not. Early childhood education does not only benefit students and families, however. Communities as a whole benefit from pre-K programs. According to a study conducted at Purdue University, funds invested in early childhood education can save eight to 16 times as much in public spending on things like criminal justice, special education and public assistance.

Unfortunately, the students who need this advantage the most are the ones who are often unable to participate. In 2019, only 53 percent of low-income children were enrolled in preschool, compared to 76 percent of children from families earning five times the poverty level. This lack of access to early childhood education can have long-term effects as these children eventually pursue secondary education and employment within their communities.

The solution to bridging this education gap is providing access to affordable, state-of-the-art pre-kindergarten education, something that Point University professor Lacey Southerland has been passionate about for decades.

When Steve Tramell, mayor of West Point, began researching community development strategies in 2017, he discovered the connection between early childhood education and workforce development. This discovery compelled him to reach out to Southerland, professor of education at Point. Southerland has been a faculty member at Point for more than two decades, but before her time at Point, she worked at the Early Childhood Laboratory at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.

The Early Childhood Laboratory is a cutting-edge lab school designed to teach children “to develop intellectual and personal competence rather than to train children in performing a limited set of academic skills.” This mission inspired Southerland and eventually evolved into a fullscale vision she longed to fulfill in West Point.

“I always wanted to open a lab school in West Point. It was my dream,” says Southerland.

Together with the City of West Point and many other local decision-makers, Southerland began leading and developing a plan to launch a preschool for lower-income children in West Point. Southerland had the full support of the city council, and she partnered with the West Point Housing Authority to find potential students.

The school, named the Chattahoochee Early Learning Academy and affectionately called CELA, opened in fall 2019 with a total of six students, all attending on scholarship, and one teacher. Point University education majors helped facilitate classes and interact with students.

CELA’s first semester was successful, but challenges beyond anyone’s control were looming on the horizon.

“Our first year open was going great until, obviously, the world shut down, and so did we,” says Southerland, regarding the COVID-19 pandemic that compelled schools and businesses throughout the world to close temporarily in March 2020.

“We thought, you know, we’d close for two weeks and be back. But, of course, we were closed for the rest of the school year,” she says. Because of the unpredictability of the pandemic, most schools throughout the United States, including CELA, remained virtual for the academic year.

CELA reopened for the new academic year in fall 2020 — amidst global uncertainty, especially among educators — with a class of seven students. “We were growing!” Southerland says, laughing. CELA’s second year was a success, despite the ever-changing nature of the world at the time. Students still attended and were able to learn and develop regardless of the unknown future.

Now, in CELA’s third year since opening, they have welcomed a class of eleven students. Some students are children of Point University’s faculty and staff, while others are scholarship students, much like the lab school that inspired Southerland in the very beginning of her career. Research has shown that students of all backgrounds are most benefited by a classroom of students whose families have a range of incomes and ethnicities.

“It’s definitely looking more like we envisioned it,” says Southerland. “We now have students who are coming back for their second year, which is also what we wanted. We were hoping to have both ages, 3- and 4-year-olds, in the same classroom.”

Point education majors are still a vital part of the CELA classroom. “We definitely can’t do it without them,” says Southerland. The students play a critical role in classroom management and one-on-one interaction with students, preparing them for a career in education, and they speak highly of their time working at CELA.

“The experience at CELA was like none other,” says Kinley Osborn ’20. “It was my first job, and I got to do what I loved. I was one of the first student helpers, so I was able to see it flourish into what it is today. It made my heart happy to get to go every day and make an impact on a child’s education journey.”

Point senior BreAnna Yarbrough ’23 has been able to learn practical strategies from CELA that she plans to apply in her classroom next fall. “At CELA, we use a thinking chair, which is like a time-out. The thinking chair allows students to feel their emotions and to think about the choice they made,” she explains. “I plan to use the thinking chair method if it applies to the grade level I will teach in the future.”

Despite the turbulence of the last several years, CELA’s leadership remains focused on their original vision for their students.

“We’re facing a lot of change, but our goal is to follow these students all the way through high school,” says Southerland.

Since CELA began as a way to improve West Point’s workforce development, the team wants to ensure they are reaching that goal. Among several vision points, CELA strives to “serve the community by providing ‘best practices’ for the care and education of children, use a play-based approach that is child-centered and language-focused, maximize every individual child’s potential for school success, and follow the graduates’ achievements through identity-protected research.”

Osborn says, “CELA is a special place to the community and to me. One of the many reasons it is so special is because the community built it, and the staff and parents have a love and passion for kids and their education. They go out of their way to bring the community together. It’s valuable to the West Point community because it is a light. People want to invest. It is a local preschool to help mold future leaders.”

The leadership of CELA has faced more challenges since it opened its doors than most organizations would normally experience in decades. Despite the turbulence of the pandemic, CELA managed to remain open and continue serving its community to the best of its ability. Now, as the world stabilizes once again, more change is ahead for CELA.

“Things will be very different next year,” explains Southerland, with tears in her eyes. After the 2022-23 academic year, Southerland will step down from her position as director of the board of CELA so that she and her husband can relocate to Texas to be with family. Additionally, CELA’s lead teacher, Heather Hoats, will be leaving her position at the end of the school year, along with CELA’s director, Anne O’Brien.

Transition is never easy, whether for an individual or an organization. But despite her sadness at leaving, Southerland remains confident that CELA will continue to grow and impact students, their families and the surrounding communities of West Point, Lanett and Valley.

While reflecting on the birth of CELA and her role there, Southerland attributes its success to God alone. “It’s all God,” she says. “He’s the one who brought it all together.”

In the same way that God brings things together, he also holds them together. Colossians 1:16-17 says, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions on rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” This fact has been true since the beginning of creation, and it remains true today.

No matter who the chair of the board or the lead teacher is, CELA’s leadership team is entirely devoted to creating opportunities for disadvantaged students in their community. CELA will continue to educate 3- and 4-year olds through research-supported curriculum with the goal of providing these students a stable foundation to continue their education through high school and college.

Southerland’s deep passion for the mission and vision of CELA is hard to ignore, and her love for the students is evident in her every word as she talks about them. She is not simply doing her job. She is living and working out of a deep well of purpose, committed to offering these students and their families everything she can give them. That kind of passion is a foundation that is not easily shaken, and though she may no longer be a physical presence at CELA, her passion and vision for the school and its students will remain for years to come.