ABOVE: Students in a preschool class at St. John Vianney Catholic School in Fairmont. Next school year for the first time the school will be offering the option of full-day preschool for 3-year-olds.

FAIRMONT– St. John Vianney (SJV) Catholic School in Fairmont is working on plans to roll out a full-day preschool for 3-year-olds next school year.

SJV Principal, Sarah Striemer, explained how it came to be. She said that the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence, which is based out of the Twin Cities, has a goal of helping all catholic schools in the state of Minnesota be as good as they can be.

“We met with their preschool excellence teacher this fall. She came and toured our preschool and was super impressed with everything we were doing and gave us a few suggestions of a few things we can do to make it better,” Striemer said.

At that time the school learned that many others are now offering all day preschool for 3-year-olds.

“This coming year, we’re going to offer full-day preschool for 3,4 and 5-year-olds,” Striemer said.

Currently the school offers full-day preschool for 4 and 5-year-olds and half day for 3-year-olds. Moving forward parents will have the option of whether they want their 3-year-old to go to full or half-day preschool.

“The best thing is that for the 2024-25 school year, preschool will be fully funded. There will be no tuition cost for preschool,” Striemer said.

This is possible thanks to a generous donation from Sharon Helmke, made in loving memory of her late husband, Michael. The pair had a passion for the school and church and wanted to make a donation and see the school and its programs thrive.

Striemer said the school is only requiring a $100 registration fee, which parents can pay to hold their child’s spot.

The full-day 3-year-old preschool is a pilot program that will for sure be in place for the 2024-25 school year. Striemer hopes to see it continue for years to come.

“We have 20 spaces available,” Striemer said.

The 20 spots are open tuition-free for preschoolers aged 3-5 for the coming school year. An open house will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Feb. 26 at which point parents and their children can come in and meet with teachers and ask questions. Registration will open on that day.

“Everyone is welcome to come to St. John Vianney. You do not need to be catholic to come here,” Striemer said.

Currently the school has about 10 preschool students but Striemer acknowledged that the benefit of adding full-day preschool for 3-year-olds is that they will be able to experience a full day of school.

“What we’re learning is that preschool is the new kindergarten. There are so many things preschoolers need to learn going into kindergarten… we started last year testing our preschoolers on a standardized test and many of them were already testing well above the kindergarten level. It’s super exciting academically to see how easy they are,” Striemer said.

However, she stressed that the purpose of preschool is still to teach students how to attend school and walk into the building, take care of themselves, interact with others, etc.

Currently, 85 students attend SJV. This week, the school is celebrating National Catholic Schools Week.

“It’s the 50th anniversary of National Catholic Schools Week,” Striemer said.

The school has held special activities and dress up days each day of the week.

“This past Saturday was our kick-off of National Catholic Schools Week. We had our annual dinner dance at the Knights of Columbus Hall. They did their $100 raffle ticket drawing and were able to give the school $46,000,” Striemer said.

Since the raffle started 20 years ago, $758,000 has been given to the school as a result of the raffle.

“This year the money we got is going to purchase new iPads. It’s also going to fund a new outdoor classroom that we’re going to put together for next school year,” Striemer said.